When Worlds Unite
by yaksa
Summary: After two months of peace, Rika and her friends are commissioned by a mysterious group to fight a new digital menace. Only, this time, it's not only the digital world at stake, but all worlds. 01 through 03 crossover. Dairuki and others.
1. Recapitulation

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Thankfully, since I seem to do a horrible job at updating regularly.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Well, I'm back. For those of you who don't know, this is the sequel to When Worlds Rip Together. But, never fear! If you haven't read it, this chapter is actually a summary of the first story. I hope it does a good job, but maybe after you read it, you'll want to go back and read WWRT.

I actually found writing this kind of boring, since I had the first one all finished already. For that reason, it's in first person format. Torey's actually rather fun to write as. I'll let him take it away…

**Recapitulation**

All that crazy stuff started again about a month ago. That was even before Rika knew about me, although I could still get her to listen to me by screaming into her head. We had been seeing things for about a month before that. I had been waiting all my life for them to surface. In the back of my mind, I had always known that we were a seer, and had just been waiting for the first of the dreams to come.

But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, aren't I? At least for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about.

Rika had dreamed of the rip. Even I hadn't believed it right away. She had never thought she would get back to the digital world. So, naturally, as soon as she was faced with the possibility of a return, she had gone out to see if it was real. With a little prodding, at least. And it had been there. A rip in the air, a portal between our world and the digital one. But, that wasn't the end of the strangeness, because when she and Renamon went through it, they found someone who wasn't supposed to exist. Davis Motomiya.

Maybe the digital world Rika found wasn't the one the Tamers had gone to the first time. Maybe it was another digital world; the one Davis and his friends had saved. But, nevertheless, it was mind blowing.

And, that started the whole process. Rika brought all the Tamers to the rip the next day, and Davis brought everyone else. They went through the process of trying to find out where the rip had come from, and why it had shown up at that time.

Now, that's a pretty exciting story in itself, but that's not the end. Rika's dreams didn't stop just because she found the rip. And Davis was having problems of his own. You see, Jun wasn't going through the best of times, and he was pretty worried about her. When your sister is sleeping with a scum bag and taking all the drugs she can get her hands on, you have grounds for being worried. Plus there was the fact that his beloved Kari had started dating Izzy, of all people.

Rika had dreamt that there was another rip somewhere in Davis's world. When she found it, the goggle head decided to tag along, since he wasn't too happy about seeing Kari with someone else. Through that rip, Rika found something that changed her life even more. Me.

Her father, who had left so long ago, had finally found her. He was a seer too, and had somehow been able to send her a dream to lead her to him. There, he told her that she was special. That she could see the future, and if she so wished, change it. There are three factors for someone to be able to see. Rika had always wondered where her purple eyes came from. They were factor number one. I was factor number two. A seer needs to truly know themselves, and the only way to accomplish that, is to know your soul. Most people's souls stay invisible and passive their entire lives, but a seer's becomes forever tangible, and by growing to know their soul, they can understand themselves.

And that is what I am: Rika's soul. A miniature lynx, and a perfect description of her personality. Oh, and my name is Torey, by the way. As for factor three, we're still figuring that one out.

But, the story still doesn't end yet. When a rogue digimon appeared in the Tamers world, Rika dreamed about it first. She also foresaw death. So, when she brought Davis with to help tip the tables, she thought we would win. Instead, it was Davis that got attacked. He almost died, and we all thought that he was, until he showed up at Rika's doorstep, chipper as always. Veemon had gotten him to the digital world, where time passed faster, and his healing process seemed to fly by in real world time. Which was when they both realized that they were developing more than just a friendship relationship.

Then, after Sora had taken Jeri to Primary Village to get Leomon back, Davis made a stupid mistake. Ken had been going through some really bad stuff at home, and Davis got mad at him, not knowing what was going on. Ken's dad was furious when he found his son's room empty late at night. The boy had retreated to the digital world, and when he came back he found his father waiting for him.

With Yolei out of town and Davis mad at him, Ken showed up on Rika's doorstep, sporting a nasty black eye. Rika helped him keep control of his own mind, avoiding a close brush with the Kaiser.

Rika made Davis and Ken stop fighting, and everything seemed to go back to normal for a while, beside the fact that Ken had officially run away from home and was living at Davis's house. And that's where we are now. Hope I didn't confuse you too much. The dreams keep coming, and Davis and Rika keep getting closer. But, I have a feeling that something else is coming up. A seer is only in the calm of the storm for so long...

**neoKOS-MOS:** Alrighty. All done. Thank you, Torey for that wonderful little summary. Now, if you haven't read WWRT, go on to the next chapter. For everyone else:

I'm so sorry it took me so long to finally start this thing again. So much was going on at the end of the first one, and I had about written myself out for a while. Then I had to write my senior paper, and that took a while. But I've finished that. Hope you can forgive me. Please review, and I hope to see you all back again.


	2. Meeting

**Disclaimer**: Some things I own, others I don't. Digimon and Pullman's external soul idea are in the latter category.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Ah, good beginnings. Hope no one got turned off by the Dairuki in the first chapter. It really is a great pairing, guys! But, please read and enjoy. Sorry again to those who had to wait about four months for this.

Oh, and a cynodont is a mammal-like reptile, for those of you who don't know.

**Meeting**

Rika brushed through her hair for the last time, watching her reflection in the mirror. Torey watched her casually from across the room, licking his paws patiently as he waited for her. The girl set the brush down again and sighed, surveying her clothing choice one more time. Torey groaned.

Rika frowned too, just a little annoyed at herself. She had gone to such great lengths for this night. She had actually asked her mother to take her out shopping, since Torey had been jibing her about how fashion unconscious she was. Of course, her mother had been ecstatic to have her daughter want to do something girlie for once. The woman had even dragged Rika to the beauty parlor to trim her hair and get a manicure. The violet eyed girl had hated it, but she had tried to keep that inside for her mother's benefit.

She was just thankful that her mom wasn't freaking out over her now. The woman had hung back, giving Rika the space to get ready for her date on her own.

"Are you done yet?" Torey asked, tail flicking impatiently.

Rika sighed again, looking at the pretty brown tank top and beige dress pants she was wearing.

"Yeah," she said, turning toward him. "He's gonna think I'm crazy when I don't show up in jeans and gym shoes, but whatever."

She slipped a hair tie on her wrist and walked over to the door to step into the rather elegant sandals she had bought earlier that week. Pulling on the long, dark brown sweater coat she had laid out by the door before, the girl opened the door and stepped out of her room, turning back to wait for the lynx to follow.

After a pause to flick his tail one last time, he leapt off the table and raced over to jump into her arms.

"I like this outfit. It looks nice with my fur." He whispered to her.

Rika rolled her eyes. "And, of course, that's so much more important than it looking good on me." She said sarcastically, walking through the yard and leaving her property.

The walk to the park took about fifteen minutes, at a slow pace. Rika walked fast though, at least as fast as one can walk when unpracticed in the art of walking in elegant shoes. The girl could sense Renamon following her along the rooftops, always the dedicated guardian. She didn't mind if the fox tagged along on her date, as long as she didn't try to interfere.

It was about seven, and the sun was starting to go down. It being a cloudy day, it looked even later than it was, and there weren't many people on the street. Plus there was that thunderstorm warning. She should have brought an umbrella.

Thunder crashed in the still-dry air as Rika entered the park. The streetlights cast an orange glow over the prematurely dark landscape.

"Deja vu." Torey whispered from her arms.

The girl nodded, quickening her step as light raindrops began to fall. Tonight did look a lot like that night a month and a half ago when she had been heading for the same destination. Except, then it hadn't been raining.

Soon, she reached the place where she had to walk through under the trees. The raindrops still pattered quietly on the leaves above, but they didn't get far enough to hit her anymore. Torey jumped out of her arms and raced on ahead. Rika ran her hands over the sleeves of her sweater, surveying the speckling pattern the rain had left there. She took a few more steps and then stopped just outside of the tiny clearing.

The shed still stood there, although it looked more and more like it was going to fall apart every day. Rain pattered on it's rotting roof as Rika slowly skirted the clearing, staying beneath the surrounding trees as long as possible. Then she came around to the totally collapsed side. There was the rip.

The rip between worlds, which had brought about so many changes. Through it, she could see the early morning of the digital world, squat orange trees standing on the other side.

"Come on." Torey called. He was sitting just inside the shed in a dry spot, licking the rain off his coat.

"Is he there?" Rika asked, not wanting to come out into the rain.

"Yup." The lynx answered. "Waiting for you. Remember, eight minutes per second." He added before leaping through.

The girl took a deep breath and ran out into the rain, jumping through into the dryness of the digital world.

"Hey!" Davis said. He was sitting on one of the boulders, with Torey lounging next to him. "Wow. You look really nice today. Makes me feel bad."

Rika smiled. He was wearing a dark blue dress shirt with jeans. "You look nice too, Davis."

The boy pushed himself up and walked over to her. "I've never seen you with your hair down before. You look pretty."

She smiled again, hoping she wasn't blushing, and slipped her hand into his. "Are we ready to go?"

"Sure." He said, looking off into the forest. "Veemon!" He screamed, making Rika wince.

A moment later, the blue cynodont emerged from the trees and waved to the violet eyed girl. "Hi. I was talking to Renamon. You look nice, Rika."

Davis rolled his eyes and went over to his partner, pulling his hand out of Rika's. As he pulled out his digivice, the girl paced over to pick up Torey, off the boulder. After Davis had clambered up to Exveemon's shoulder, the big cynodont helped Rika up too, where she settled herself next to Davis. The digimon launched himself into the air, and Rika gripped Torey tighter to her chest until they leveled out to horizontal flight.

"When are our reservations?" The girl asked, leaning closer to Davis.

He slipped his arm around her waist to steady her on Exveemon's shoulder. "Really soon. Meeting up took longer than I thought. It's a good thing I pre ordered our food."

"What did I order again?" She asked.

Davis shrugged, shaking his head. "I don't even remember what I ordered anymore."

"I was only last week, Davis."

"I know." He grinned at her.

-

When they landed in front of Digitamamon's little restaurant, Exveemon returned to his rookie form and walked with them inside. Renamon popped in next to her partner, and the two digimon took a table on the far side of the room. Davis and Rika were seated by Tapirmon and waited for their food.

"We weren't that late." She said from across the table.

Davis shrugged, glancing curiously around the place. "I don't know. Maybe I remembered the wrong time."

Rika smiled. "You're really scatterbrained lately."

He sighed. "Yeah. Sorry, It's just that so many things are happening now. This week I had three soccer games, two tests, and then Ken's dad is driving his crazy trying to get him to come back home. He calls like twenty times a day, sometimes in the middle of the night. The phone woke me up twice last night."

"How's Jun?"

He groaned. "She's... Oh, I don't know. She's coming home more often, but there's times when she comes in around two in the morning, and I can tell she's totally wasted. I wish my parents would get a clue. I'm worried about her, Rika."

The redhead frowned. "I should come over more often. I'll beat some sense into her if you want."

Davis smiled. "Yeah, that'd be great. Jun's afraid of you anyway. Every time you come over, she makes it a point to be out of the house."

Their food came, and they ate. Rika had steamed fish with rice, and Davis had the digital world equivalent of steak. When they were finished, they left the restaurant and met their digimon at the door.

"So, now what?" Rika asked him as they walked out of the doorway, hand in hand.

He shrugged. "Dunno. I thought I'd let you decide. It's your first time back in the digital world for a while. What do you wanna see?"

The girl thought for a moment. "Is the Kaiser's fortress still there?"

Davis looked taken aback. "Well, yeah. But why do you wanna go there? It's really run down and everything, and it's ugly inside."

She perched herself on a railing. "Takato keeps bragging about how Tai and Kari took him out to destroy some of the leftover control spires. I wanna show him up."

The boy laughed. "That sounds like you. Okay, but I'm not really sure where it is anymore."

"I remember exactly where it is." Veemon said, stepping out into the sunlight and stretching, trying to look smarted than he was.

"No you don't." Davis responded, going over and play-fighting with the cynodont, until that decayed into just plain arguing. Rika watched them, smiling happily.

"How was your dinner?" Renamon asked her, moving to sit on the railing next to her partner.

"It was good. How about you? What's it like to sit and talk to Veemon for forty minutes straight?"

Renamon smiled, ever so slightly that only Rika could notice it. "Dull. Horribly dull, but he seems to amuse himself, so I watch him. It can be amusing."

"Sorry Renamon."

"What do you mean, I didn't understand it right away. As soon as Izzy explained it to me, I got it." Davis said to his digimon, trying to regain control of the conversation that was slipping through his fingers.

Rika smiled. "He means, Davis, that you may not be the first one to catch on, but we still love you anyway." She walked over and stepped in between the two of them. "Are we going or not?"

The boy pushed the insult behind him, and pulled his digivice out again. Soon, the two of them were once again perched on Exveemon's shoulder as the cynodont took a great leap into the air. Rika rested her head on Davis's shoulder as they flew on to the destination, whether or not that was really where the Kaiser's fortress was.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge projectile collided with the digimon. Rika was thrown into the air, and the wind ripped by her ears and tugged at her clothing as she plummeted toward the trees far below. Torey, wrapped in her arms, dug his claws into her arm. She fell, screaming, the green below her growing darker and more detailed as she got closer to the ground. And then, with a sickening lurch of her stomach, it stopped. It took a moment for Rika to realize what had happened. The sudden stillness and the adrenaline rush of the fall still blurred he vision.

"Rika, are you all right?"

Renamon's soft voice brought her back to reality. She was clasped in her digimon's arms, who was perched one of the high tree branches she had been falling toward just a second before. The violet eyed girl gulped, and threw her arms around the fox's neck, hugging her.

"You saved me."

"Of course. I would never let anything happen to you." Renamon set her down on the branch.

A loud crash boomed close by, the cracking of branches and the thud of lost energy shaking the forest.

Rika jumped up. "Davis!"

But the stillness after the crash didn't last. Almost instantly, there was the sound of a fight, more branches snapping and loud roars bellowing through the trees. One of those sounded an awful lot like Exveemon.

"Come on." Renamon said, beckoning the girl to climb onto her back.

Rika did so, and was startled as her digimon took off in the direction of the sound, the speed of the fox's gait almost paralleling the speed of the fall. Renamon halted, still high in the trees, and the two of them looked down at the clearing that was growing below.

Exveemon was holding on to the huge head spike of another digimon. The stranger was shaped like a giant gecko, but its head and build was that of a rhinoceros. Its skin was earthy brown, and looked like it was covered in pebbly silt. As it moved, clouds of fine dust billowed off of its skin, making it look blurry. Glowing red eyes were fixed on Exveemon's.

The cynodont pressed all his weight into pushing the digimon backwards, and then shifted so he could flip the bulky lizard on it's side. As it clambered to its feet again, Exveemon reared up to attack it with his V-laser attack.

Rika pulled out her digivice and peered down at it. "Felsemon." She whispered.

Before the cynodont could fire, Felsemon was on his feet and dodged, running toward his attacker and hitting him with a sickening thwack of his rocky tail. Exveemon flew, crashing into another tree, and bringing down a number of branches on top of himself.

"We should get down from here, Rika." Renamon whispered.

The girl climbed onto her back again, and the fox quickly made her way to the underbrush. Rika jumped off as her partner landed, and watched as the digimon stalked toward Felsemon, who was rearing up to hurl another giant boulder at Exveemon. Leaping up, the fox shot a barrage of glass shards deep into the lizard's hard skin.

Rika looked around for Davis. After a minute, she saw him lying still against the base of a tree. Sucking in a worried breath, the violet eyed girl picked her way through splintered branches and made her way to his side.

"Davis?"

He groaned, auburn eyes fluttering open for a second. "My head hurts."

"Are you okay?"

He groaned again. "Let's see." Slowly, the boy checked to see it his body was still in working order. "Yeah. I guess so."

Felsemon bellowed, and Rika glanced over her shoulder to see what was going on. The enemy digimon was bristling with diamond shards as he lunged at Exveemon again. The cynodont got out of the way of the giant horn on his head, and grabbed at the stony tail. Finding purchase on the leafy ground, he threw his weight into tossing the rock digimon into another tree, which cracked sickeningly at it absorbed the momentum.

"Come on." She said to Davis, pulling him to his feet and leading him over to the battle sidelines. "You have to help him. I forgot my cards, so I can't power Renamon up."

Felsemon regained his footing and glared at his opponents for a moment. Then, he reared up and smacked his clawed feet back down on the soft earth. A tremor roared through the ground, knocking the two humans off their feet. But it struck Exveemon directly, and the cynodont was thrown backward into another tree, data unfocusing for a second before he reverted to Veemon.

Davis grabbed Rika's arm. "Can't Renamon digivolve without the cards?"

Without a moment's pause, the fox started glowing, and upgraded to her champion form. Kyuubimon attacked Felsemon fiercely, drawing his attention away from Veemon. She ran circles around the lizard, biting at his sides, but an aimed swing of his tail sent her flying into yet another tree. The sound of it's trunk cracking made Rika wince. The fox recovered and sent a flaming attack at the stone digimon. He roared as the fire began to burn his bristly fur, but lowered his head and rammed Kyuubimon with a direct headbutt.

"No!" Rika screamed as the fox returned to her rookie form, lying limp at the base of the tree.

Veemon picked himself up to attack as Felsemon turned back to his original opponent. Suddenly, thick brown vines began to grow up around the lizard's feet, constricting around his ankles. Roaring, he ripped through the vines and tried to advance on his target. The vines grew up again, this time wrapping themselves firmly around his body and head.

"Send him to rebirth, Delphinium." A girl's voice called out.

A new digimon stepped into the unnatural clearing. She was small, but not as big as her opponent, the top of her head only coming to the bound lizard's shoulder. Bent over like a raptor, the spring green digimon had every appearance of a heavyset dinosaur. She stood on two thick hind legs, and smooth skin ran from her rounded head to the tip of the powerful tail. Folded on her back, were two fern-like wings that rattled as she moved. A flower of vibrant pink ringed the plant digimon's neck.

Instead of toes and fingers, the end of each limb was composed of a snarled looking knot of vines. Bending over, she dug those vines into the earth and more of the brown vines leapt up to bind Felsemon. The lizard bellowed, and the deep sound wave ripped through the vines again. He clambered to his feet and attacked the other digimon, who was still rooted in place. Just before he struck her, she ripped her feet out of the ground and dodged. A flap of her wings sent razor sharp leaves deep into the opponent's flesh. Without a pause, more vines wrapped themselves around him, and the digimon hovered over Felsemon. She reared back and breathed a plume of fiery acid over the rock digimon. He screamed in pain, and his data began to dissolve from beneath the prison of vines.

The big plant digimon touched down next to the pile, and watched as the remainder of her acid soaked into the soil.

Rika stood there for a moment, staring at their savior. Then she ran over to Renamon, a sandal catching on something, causing her to trip before she reached her partner's side.

"Are you okay, Renamon?" She whispered, lifting the fox's limp head.

Big eyes blinked, and the exhausted digimon nodded.

Rika turned back to look at the plant digimon still standing in the middle of the clearing. She was watching Davis help Veemon to a standing position. The violet eyed girl stood again, and pulled the hair tie off her wrist, pulling her hair up and out of her eyes. She slipped out of her sandals and stepped closer to the large digimon, intending to address her.

But, instead, a voice came from behind. "Good job, Delphinium."

Rika whirled around to see a girl emerge from among the trees. She had dark khakis on, and was wearing a pale green shirt, with a darker green sweater pulled over it. Most notably was her chin-length forest green hair, which was interspersed with other greens and browns. It looked almost natural.

The girl stepped forward and held out her hand to Rika. "I'm Nora. It's good to finally meet you."

**neoKOS-MOS:** Yes, I know you're dying because of the cliffhanger. Sorry. It's the perfect place to switch voices. As for the 5000 word challenge from last time, I'm working on it. Might come next time. No promises, though. Please review! I love you for reviewing and giving me suggestions. And maybe even some constructive criticism?


	3. Into the Looking Glass

**Disclaimer: **Digimon is not mine, nor is the external soul idea. Everything else, is mine. Thanks for respecting that.

**neoKOS-MOS: **All right. I know it was a long wait, but things have been nuts. My computer went crazy and was holding my data hostage. The negotiations didn't go too well. In other words, Windows corrupted and I lost everything. Thankfully, I had printed most of this before it happened, so I could retype it out, instead of having to rewrite it all from scratch.

As I said in the last chapter, this is the challenge chapter. 5300 words total, give or take. I knew it was gonna be long. This chapter is a little different from the previous ones. I said the story was taking a turn. Please enjoy, and thanks for your patience in waiting for this.

**Into the Looking Glass**

Too tired to stay in his rookie form, Veemon had reverted to Demiveemon. Davis picked his friend up and turned around to stare at the digimon that had saved them. She was looking back at him with those spooky eyes. The irises were amber, and the parts that should have been white were as black as her pupils. She took a step closer to him, lowering her head a little to come down to his eye level.

"Are you hurt?" She asked with a blink.

Davis stared for a moment. "Uh, no. I'm fine. Great, thanks to you, that is."

She nodded and looked over toward Rika. "You should go over to your friend. You'll want to hear what Nora has to say."

The boy followed her eyes and, for the first time, noticed the girl talking to Rika. "Nora?" He asked.

The plant digimon motioned for him to go over. He sprinted across the ransacked clearing, glad that he'd worn his gym shoes instead of the dress shoes his mom had been pushing on him. Rika was staring at the other girl in disbelief as he stepped up next to her.

"What do you mean, you've known me for a long time?" The redhead demanded. "I've never seen you before in my life."

Nora smiled. "I know. But I know for a fact that you've met my boyfriend before." She turned to look back into the forest. "Right?" She asked.

"Oh, did you have to say it that way?" A familiar voice asked.

Davis's mouth fell open as TK stepped out of the underbrush. "You!"

The blonde boy smiled, looking cocky and embarrassed at the same time. He stepped up next to Nora. "Hey, Davis."

"But, you..."

The green haired girl laughed, making Davis stop his confounded questions.

He blushed. "What's so funny." He demanded.

"Nothing." She turned to her digimon. "Delphinium, was that Felsemon being controlled by one of them?"

The theropod paced over to the group of humans. "I don't think so. It seemed as if he truly believed in their cause."

The girl nodded and turned back into the forest the way she had come. TK took a step to follow her before looking back over his shoulder.

"You coming?" He asked, before turning back onto his path.

Davis and Rika stared at each other for a second before following. The boy went up to TK and grabbed his arm.

"You've got some explaining to do."

The blonde boy sighed. "All right. Remember that night when you stayed over at my house?"

Davis stared blankly.

"Your sister was having a sleepover."

He blinked. "Oh. Yeah."

Demiveemon elbowed him in the stomach.

"Well," TK continued, taking no notice. "I had been chatting with Nora online for a few months."

"Dating." Davis explained to Rika. She smiled.

"Whatever." The other boy dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand. "That night, she told me that she knew I was digidestined, and that she had a digimon too. She wanted to meet up."

The brunette grinned. "How did you know she wasn't some forty year old sexual predator?"

"Shut up, Davis." TK elbowed him in the side. "It just sounded right. And Patamon had a feeling she was telling the truth. But, anyway, we met up outside the school, and she told me about this organization she and Delphiniumon are part of."

"Organization?" Rika asked, leaning over to see around Davis.

"Yes." Nora said, having stopped up ahead to wait for them to catch up. "How many worlds are there, Rika?"

The violet eyed girl looked confused. "I don't know. For a while I thought there were only two."

Nodding, Nora smiled. "That's what most people who have digimon think. But, what's your world number? Six seventy something? Doesn't that mean there are at least that many worlds?"

The three of them came to a stop as the met up with the green clad girl.

Rika frowned. "But, that's insane. Does each world have people living there and everything? And why is there only one digital world?"

Nora smiled again. "The universe is a complex thing. Let's go back to base, where I can explain it a lot better."

She pulled her digivice out of a pocket. Davis stared at it. It looked like a palm pilot, flat, with numerous buttons underneath the black screen, arranged like a keyboard. The girl held the forest green device in one hand, and pressed a large side button with her thumb. The antenna erupted into a blade of green plasma, and she cut a hole in the air.

She stepped through and turned back to look at the other three. "Coming?"

Davis nodded dumbly and followed as first TK and then Rika stepped through. Delphiniumon and Renamon followed suit, and he caught a glimpse of Torey shooting through after, taking care to hide himself behind the fox's bushy tail.

As Nora closed the rip behind them, Davis looked around at the world they had just entered. They were standing on a huge open semicircular platform, like nothing he had ever seem before. The platform itself was bright cobalt blue, the center glowing a lighter color than the edges. It seemed to vibrate with a warm energy. In the distance, he could see other platforms, tiny and dark because of how far away they were, and separated by a seemingly endless fall. Bluish purple mist swirled far below the platform, with no hint that the emptiness was ever ended by land. And the sky, while deep blue on the horizon, arced up, growing darker as it rose, until the eye reached the zenith, where the sky was black as night, stars and all.

"What is this place?" Davis asked in awe, unable to tear his eyes from the landscape, or lack there of.

"It has a perverse beauty to it." Nora said, looking around as well. "This is our transition world."

"Transition world?" Davis pulled out his digivice and displayed the world number. It read 129.

"You see," Nora explained. "When we cut into different worlds, we can't travel spatially in that world. You can only step through to the spot in that world that is equivalent to the spot in the world you were cutting from."

Rika, sandals still in hand, stared down at the buzzing platform, feeling the vibration with her bare feet. "Yeah. That's so annoying. I have to walk so far in my world to get anywhere close to Davis's house."

He looked at her. She rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"That's why we use this world." Nora continued, "We erected the energy platforms and closed in the sky."

Demiveemon squirmed out of Davis's arms. "Wow." The little cynodont said as he approached the edge of the platform and peered over. "There's nothing holding it up."

"Actually," TK replied, pointing up. "It's attached by energy ropes to the sky dome."

Nora poked him in the arm, grinning. "Look at you, trying to act like you know it all."

He blushed and shut up.

Off in the distance, Davis caught a glimpse of a dot of blue approaching. The tiny speck seemed to grow exponentially as it got closer. The group fell silent and watched it. After a moment, Davis realized what it was.

"It's a train." The boy whispered, squinting at it.

The vehicle glided to a halt in front of the semicircular platform. It was floating on a strand of pale blue energy, leading back to another platform in the distance. The train was deep purple cobalt, and shaped like a bullet train, a deep violet windshield stretched across it's pointed face. A cerulean door opened in the side, and Nora moved inside.

"Come on." TK said, following her.

"Rika," the green clad girl called from inside. "I'd suggest that you hold on to your soul while we're traveling about. As rare as seers are, we don't want someone snatching him on you."

Rika stopped in her tracks, mouth falling open. It took Davis a moment to realize that he was doing the same. TK, standing in the open doorway, was alternating between staring in confusion at Nora, and then Rika.

"How do you..." She started.

"Look, I'll explain everything on the way. But, please, get on the train. It'll be a long ride without you stalling."

Torey emerged from behind Renamon and hid himself behind Rika's feet. Bristling with anger and confusion. The redhead looked just as mad for a moment, but then composed herself and picked up the furious cat, hugging him to her chest roughly. Then she stepped forward and entered the train, Davis on her heels. The girl took a seat by the door, glaring across the aisle at Nora. The two boys exchanged glances, and then Davis moved to sit by Rika, TK by Nora. Delphiniumon bent down and stepped inside, standing in the aisle in the opposite side of the doors from the humans. Renamon lingered just inside the doorway as the cerulean panels snapped shut behind her.

Demiveemon jumped into Davis's lap as the train took off. The boy could barely feel the acceleration, but when he turned around to look at the platform, it was already disappearing over the misty horizon.

"Wow." He whispered under his breath.

"How did you know?" Rika demanded.

Nora sighed, averting her eyes. "We've been watching you guys for a long time. You see, it's my job to watch people who have been granted access to the digital world. The balance between all the worlds is a delicate thing, and anyone with a digivice can go to any of them if they know how. We have to make sure that no one harms that balance, either by mistake or design.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"My team had been assigned to watch you and the other tamers in the Japan of your world. Do you think I would have missed him while watching you over the past two months?"

"I understand that you saw him." Rika snapped, closing her eyes for a second. "What I don't understand is how you knew what he was, or how you knew I could see."

TK, looking very confused, opened his mouth to ask something. Before he could, Nora elbowed him in the ribs, shutting him up.

"I knew what he was because we've worked with seers before. And I know you have purple eyes."

Rika sighed, sliding down to a slouch in her chair. "Whatever. I guess that makes sense."

Torey, whose fur had been practically standing on end a second ago, relaxed himself and curled up snugly in the girl's arms. Davis smiled, glad that the two of them had settled down.

"Um, Nora?" TK asked, still rubbing his side. "Can I..."

"Later." She said, holding up a hand to silence him as she stared out the window behind Davis and Rika.

The brunette craned his neck around to see what she was looking at. They were approaching another blue energy platform, this one much bigger, with a huge pillar shooting up out of it and disappearing into the sky.

"Is this our stop?" She asked, still peering out the window.

"Yup." The girl announced, getting up and grabbing onto one of the poles near the door.

Slowly, as the platform in the distance grew, the train pulled itself to a smooth halt, the deceleration barely pulling at it's passengers bodies. The cerulean doors slid open again, and Nora stepped out, Renamon on her heels. TK got up too, heading onto the platform, and Davis stood. He helped Rika up and then followed the violet eyed girl outside, Demiveemon clutched in his arms. Delphiniumon exited last, her larger form fitting through the doors without much trouble. As she stepped out, the plant digimon shook her head, fluffing out the petals surrounding her neck and sending a sweet flowery smell into the air.

The train sped off into the distance, riding on it's strand of blue energy. Davis stared up at the huge pillar leading up into the sky. It was a translucent aqua color, with tow long stripes of blue lavender rising up on each side. At the base, he could see something that looked like a basket inside. There was a base of midnight blue with a mesh of ocean colored bars rising up around the sides. Nora led the way toward the weird looking thing.

"What is that?" Davis asked, knowing Rika wouldn't, and that TK already knew.

"It's an elevator." The other boy said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Oh. Right." The brunette mumbled, annoyed because he felt stupid for not knowing.

The green haired girl walked up to the base of the thing, and placed a palm on the almost clear surface. A flash of electric blue crackled over that spot, and then a door sliced open in the energy glass. Nora ushered them inside, and the four humans stepped onto the deep blue elevator base, the mesh having peeled away to leave an opening around the door. Renamon and Delphiniumon climbed in after, and the door zipped closed. The mesh knit itself back together, and the base began to rise beneath their feet.

"Don't watch the platform." Nora warned.

Davis peeked through the energy glass and watched as the warmly glowing platform shot downward at breakneck speed. He clapped a hand over his mouth and sunk down to the floor, closing his eyes.

"You okay, Davis?" Rika asked, setting a hand on his shoulder.

Feeling sick, the boy looked up at her and nodded.

"I told you not to watch it." Nora said, laughter in her voice.

He moaned and stared at the floor for a while, willing his stomach to resettle itself again. Then he stood up and blankly watched the mesh surrounding the dark circle, telling his brain to ignore the knowledge that they were shooting up into the sky. After a few minutes, he felt the elevator begin to glide to a slow stop.

"All right." Nora said, pulling out her digivice and stepping forward to approach the side.

Some of the mesh curled away, and she again set a palm to the energy glass. Light crackled over her hand, and then another door sliced open in the side. Without a moments hesitation, she stepped out into thin air. Or maybe it wasn't so thin, since she still stood there, on some invisible platform, looking back through the door at them. TK followed her, and Rika pulled Davis onto the transparent platform of energy glass. He couldn't help but stare at his feet, looking like they were supported by nothing, with only the pale purple mist far below.

Nora plugged a world number into the direction, and sliced another hole in the air. It was dark on the other side, in stark contrast to the aquamarine of the sky outside the elevator. The girl let the two digimon go through first, and them stepped in after them. TK followed her, and Rika grabbed Davis's arm, leading him into the rip, off the invisible platform and onto visible ground.

He looked back through the rip and saw the deep blue elevator drop back downward, just as Nora closed it up again. She sighed loudly, slipping the green digivice back into her pocket, and turning into the room.

"I'm back." She yelled.

Confused, Davis looked around. Where they had just stepped though, there was now a deep red wall. It was a small room, with three bare walls. Where there should have been a fourth wall, there was instead an opening, a giant door leading into another, larger room. The green clad girl headed toward that door, following her digimon as the pale green theropod went inside. The other four hurried after them, coming out into another deep red room, this one much bigger.

"Whoa." Davis whispered.

It was almost as big as his entire living room, and one of the walls had windows cut in it, though they were curtained from the outside. That, and the normal sized door that was along that wall, gave the impression that there were more rooms hidden behind it. Everything was still that deep red color, almost as if it was a trick of the lighting, despite the dimmed yellow fluorescent bulbs on the ceiling. Lining the two walls not occupied by the strange covered windows, were dozens of screens. They were each about a meter square, and displaying different scenes in crisp black-and-white. Davis saw busy streets, crammed with too many people. Other screens showed empty rooms, with only furniture and pets. Some were black, displaying nothing.

Beneath the screens were a line of computers, set up against the wall, each with a swivel chair bolted to the floor in front of it. They looked like the NASA computers Davis had seen in the movies, old but futuristic looking at the same time. Except, he could tell that these computers were not out of date. Their keyboards were flat touchscreens, with a qwerty overlay to distinguish between the keys. The monitors, while bulky, looked like plasma screens, warm to the touch. Everything about the computers looked high tech and complicated.

In the middle of the room, there was a big wrap-around desk, almost completing a square, except for the absence of a corner, leaving an entrance to the inside. Sitting with her feet propped up on the dark wooden desk, was a girl. She was leaning back n a wheeled swivel chair and watching the new arrivals.

"Took you long enough to bring them in." She said to Nora, not moving at all.

"Well, we were attacked by a rogue Felsemon. Weren't you watching?"

The girl shook her head. "Sky said he was gonna do it." She jerked a thumb at one of the covered windows.

Nora sighed, frowning. "I guess I'm just not that important then."

The other girl only smiled, seeming to know that her friend was only guilting her. "Yeah, But, anyway, I should probably introduce myself."

She pulled herself out of the chair and made her way over to them, holding a hand out to Rika. "I'm Adara. I'm head of our team here."

The girl moved to shake Davis's hand after she had released Rika's. He couldn't help but stare at her. She was taller than him, with gorgeous mahogany hair, so dark it almost looked black at times. Her eyes were bright green and her skin had a light tan to it. She was dressed in dark jeans, hemmed at mid-calf, with a black tank top under a red jacket. She was wearing black heels, which added to her height, though she would probably still be taller than him without them. She had silver jewelry on both wrists, as well as a simple locket necklace.

Rika elbowed him in the ribs as Adara moved away. He grunted and looked over at her, only to be fixed with a glare.

"Sorry." He whispered. "But she's gorgeous. Not as much as you are, though."

The redhead rolled her eyes, smiling a little smugly. "Thanks, Davis." She whispered back.

Adara had led the way over to the computer consoles. Nora was already seated in one of the chairs, looking up at the display screens. TK, standing off to the side near her, waved the two of them over. Rika led him over, and they stood about a yard from the other three, waiting for this whole thing to be explained to them.

The dark haired girl turned back around, a little smile on her lips.

"Well, you've probably got a thousand questions swimming through your heads right now. I don't know how well I can answer all of them, but I think a summary of our history will help with a lot."

She sat gingerly on the edge of one of the consoles, and set a hand on her knee before going on.

"First off, our tam is a part of the organization known as MIRROR. Multiworld Interference Regulation and Registration of Otherworlder Roaming. Basically, MIRROR keeps track of people who have been granted access to the digital world. Most of them, like you guys until a few months ago, don't even know that they can use their digivices to go to other worlds. MIRROR is broken into teams of six or seven, each of which keep track of the people who don't know what they can do. We make sure that they don't accidentally do something to endanger their world, or their portion of the digital world."

"Portion?" Davis asked, feeling a little lost.

"Yeah," the girl said, pressing a finger to the touchpad of a computer. A strange diagram, sort of like a complex spider web, popped up on one of the dark screens on the wall. "You see, there's only one digital world, but hundreds of regular ones. Confined worlds, as we call them. The reason for this is because the digital world, while remaining one world, can divide itself up to devote a portion to each of the confined ones."

"The digital world is what connects all the other worlds together." Nora explained. "Without it, all the confined worlds would have no way to interact. And that's why we need to make sure nothing bad happens to it. If it goes bad, all the others will follow."

Rika moved over and sat in one of the chairs. "If the digital world only gives portions of itself to the other worlds, what does it matter if one or two of them go bad? Won't the rest of it be okay?"

"Well, yes." Adara said, looking over at the violet eyed girl. "It'll be okay for a while, but if enough of them go bad, there's a problem with keeping it from leaking into all of the digital world. The portions may be separated, but they are still part of the same world, and thins travel intraworld much easier than they travel interworld.

"And that's where we come in." Said a male voice, followed by the slam of a door.

Davis whirled around to find the speaker walking away from the door in the windowed wall, smirking mischievously and blue eyes shining. He looked a few years older Davis, as well a a little taller. Dressed in worn blue jeans and a loose white dress shirt, the dark-blonde paced over and shook Davis's hand.

"I'm Randy, and it looks like Adara's been pulling you into her 'world order' talk before giving you the fun stuff."

"The little details don't make any sense if you don't tell the history first." She complained.

"Yeah." He responded, moving to shake Rika's hand. "But they're so much more interesting.

Nora smiled, leaning back in her chair and propping her feet up on the console. "Why don't you enlighten them, Randy."

"Sure." He back stepped and grabbed a wheeled chair from the desk. Dragging it over, he turned it backwards and sat down, resting his arms in front of him on the back of the chair. "You see, a lot of the time, when a portion of the digital world goes bad, it's because there's interference from one of the confined worlds. Think the Digimon Kaiser, or your world's Juggernaut, Rika."

Stretching, he continued. "Our job is to watch the otherworders, people who can at least go to the digital world, and to make sure they don't get to close to contaminating their portion of the digital world."

"But the whole Hypnos thing almost destroyed all the digimon." Rika interrupted. "And the Kaiser did almost take over the digital world. Where were you guys then?"

Nora took that one. "Hypnos couldn't have destroyed all digimon. It might have succeeded to stop them from coming to your world, but that's all. And the Kaiser couldn't have taken the digital world. He had too much against him."

Davis blinked. "Us?"

"Yeah." TK cut in. "It kinda makes you feel good, that we were strong enough for these guys to trust us to take care of it."

The brunette smiled, agreeing with his friend. "All right. But I have a question. Nora has a digimon, but what about you two?"

Randy laughed. "Chispamon is on a mission, so he'll be gone for a while. As for Adara's..."

"Yeah, I'm coming."

From behind the wooden desk emerged a small digimon. He was the size of a house cat, and looked the same, except for the crimson red flecks in his fur. The cat trudged over to his partner, scowling up at Davis as he passed by, and punctuated it with a hiss as he leapt onto Adara's lap. She smoothed a hand over his back.

"Don't be mean, Mau." She whispered.

Randy held a hand to his mouth to direct his comment at Davis. "The two girls have taken a habit of leaving the 'mon' off the end of their digimon's names."

Rika sat back and crossed her arms in front of herself, leaving Torey to sit on her knee. "All that stuff makes sense, but what I don't get is why you brought us here. Is it because we figured out that there were more than two worlds? Was it because we learned how to cut rips between them? Do you want us to join MIRROR now, because of that? Or is it something else?"

Adara smiled. She sighed and stood up, walking over to stand next to Davis, and motioning for him to take her place. He went over and sat down.

"You're a smart one, Rika." She said, setting her digimon down on the floor. "Yes, it is something else. Actually, it's a lot more than that. It's the fate of the universe."

Davis stiffened a little at the tone of her voice. She sounded worried and scared, and maybe a little tired of having to feel that way. Of being afraid of loosing something so important.

"What's been happening?" He asked.

The girl sighed again, closing her pretty eyes for a moment before going on. "The digital world and the confined worlds go through a cycle every once in a while. You've noticed that there's a difference in the time pattern between worlds, right? Well, whenever this cycle comes around, there's a period of time when all the time patterns lock onto the digital world's, and they all equalize."

"That doesn't sound like a bad thing, right?" Randy continued. "Except that when this happens, it seems to get easier to travel between the digital world and the confined ones. Crazy things happen when the cycle restarts, like normal people ending up trapped in the digital world, or hoards of digimon transferring into a peaceful city. People even transfer between the confined worlds, sometimes, and get trapped there."

"Rika, that rip you found in the park was caused by the approaching of the restart cycle." Nora explained. "It's not here yet, but it has been causing a lot of those kinds of things to happen. Once it comes, things are only going to get worse. All the time patterns will be the same. Digimon will start drifting into confined worlds, some without even knowing it. People will get lost in worlds they don't know, and will have no way of getting back. Rips will close behind them, and they'll be stranded. It'll be chaos."

"And that's not the worst of it." Adara said, walking over to the console Davis was sitting on and hitting another of the buttons. Numerous digimon profiles replaced the diagram on the screen as she returned to her spot. "Something, we're not quite sure it It's a digimon or something new, has come to power in the digital world. But not the part of it you're thinking of. This new entity had situated Itself in the Core, the innermost confines of the digital world, a place that doesn't connect to any confined worlds. A place where you can't escape by cutting out, and where digimon live in isolation from the good effects of the confined worlds. They have never known friendship with people, and have never experienced the extra vitality that the confined worlds share with the digital world. The Core is a harsh place, and that's where this new evil is."

"The entity has been gaining allies, by their choice or Its own brute force, making them join It's cause. Powerful allies. Digimon even above mega level, who could delete their enemies and leave no data behind to absorb or reconfigure into an egg."

"And the It's gathering these allies, waiting for the restart cycle to begin. Once all the world times are locked and the barriers are weakened, It'll send them out into the confined worlds and attack. You see, It's not after just one world. It knows that there's hundreds of them, and It wants them all. It wants the entire universe to rule."

Davis blinked, staring at the girl. Sadness had seemed to come out in her features as she had spoken. With all that was at stake, no wonder she had looked so worried.

"So..." He asked hesitantly. "You want us to go take out this supreme evil?"

Randy laughed, cutting through the tension and blowing it away like chaff in the wind. "Right. We need you to go take out the Ultimate Bad Guy, who not even all of MIRROR could kill if we tried." He grinned sarcastically.

Nora rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Randy. No, Davis. I don't think anyone is strong enough to kill It yet, and it would be foolish for us to send anyone to attempt that. What we need, is some help. Our team has been assigned to take out three of It's high ranking allies, and we would like if you guys, and the other digidestined and tamers, would help us."

The green haired girl licked dry lips. "We could do it one at a time, but it would take a while, and they'd catch on to our plan. If you help us, we could attack them all at the same time, and it would take less time, and fewer world would be hurt in the process."

"Do you really think we could do it?" Rika asked, glancing over at Renamon for a second. "I thought you said these digimon were all powerful. How are our digimon going to be able to fight something like that?"

"Yeah." Davis added. "What if not everyone wants to go? I know they won't be too excited about their digimon being deleted permanently. I'm not too excited myself." He hugged Demiveemon and the little blue cynodont looked up at him.

Adara nodded. "I know. But, remember, we'll be coming with you. Out of the five of us, three of our digimon won't be tied up and each of the can go past mega. You guys should be perfectly safe."

The brunette sighed, smiling ever so slightly. "Actually it sounds kinda fun. We haven't fought anything in two months." He looked up and found Rika grinning at him.

There was a static crackling, and a voice spoke from the console. "Hey guys, Team 73 is getting hit hard. They maydayed asking for some help." It was high, but male, like a child's voice, and with just the slightest hint of an accent Davis had never heard before.

Adara sighed and looked down at her digimon, sitting beneath Randy's chair. "You feeling up to it?"

The cat frowned. "I guess. I think I could pull ultimate. If only that stupid accident hadn't happened, I could pull mega no problem." He scowled around the room, meeting Davis's eyes for a moment.

The dark haired girl stooped down and picked him up. "All right. I'm gonna go take care of it. Nora, you coming with?"

The green clad girl nodded and got up.

"'Kay." Randy said, standing up and giving his chair a shove back over to the desk. "I guess I'll take these guys back. You coming, TK?"

The blonde boy shook his head. "I think I'll go with the girls. I wanna see one of these supreme digimon."

The older boy shrugged and waved Davis and Rika to follow him back to the elevator room. "Come on. Let's get you guys home so you can talk to your friends."

**neoKOS-MOS:** Well, how was that to answer some questions? I said it was gonna be kinda different. For those of you who like the home life, this isn't going to totally ignore that. It'll be a while before they actually go anywhere. Hope you liked it, and still do. Now, I'm gonna try something new:

_Dark Qiviut:_ Thank you for reviewing so quickly. As well as for your suggestions. With this set up, I can basically bring in anyone I want to. I'll need to do some research before I tackle any characters I'm not that familiar with. I wanna get them right. Also, to your constructive criticism, I know about that. The problem is, my word processor of choice capitalizes everything after a period, and I'm not about to go back and change them all. So lazy.

_cutekitty:_ Hi anonymous reviewer! I'm glad you liked it so far. About WWRT, did you read it through right after you read this one, or while it was being written?

_miricles-3:_ Glad you came back. Have you gotten your muse back yet? I know it can take time, but I'm still waiting for the next chapter of your Dairuki.

_ApricotKisses:_ Haylo. It's okay that it took you so long to review. It took me way to long to post it in the first place. Glad you like that they went to Digitamamon's. I had a feeling someone would. As for the Jun fiasco, it'll definitely not go away. And it's only more interesting because Ken is living at Davis's now. grin

Thanks for reading. Please review.


	4. Fudge

**Disclaimer:** Nothing's mine in this chapter. Not Digimon or Pullman's external soul and world cutting ideas. All references to Nora, Randy, or Adara, are mine however. As well as my gorgeous world theory. grin

**neoKOS-MOS:** Sorry for this wait. I was gonna post it on Friday, but it still needed some work, and then I had my AP test to study for. Aced it, I hope. Hi everyone! big wave Glad you liked the last chapter. I wasn't sure, since I'm taking a different direction here. Back to the roots of the story, I'd say. Enough rambling.

Read and enjoy! Thanks for being here.

**Fudge**

The alarm went off on her alarm clock. A pillow promptly collided with it, sending the two objects sliding off the desk to land in a heap on the floor. The alarm still blared defiantly, only muffled by the pillow sitting on top of it.

Rika groaned. She pulled herself out of bed and crawled over to the abominable thing. Over the past two month she had grown to hate alarm clocks, especially her own. When someone has to wake up at two in the morning just to hang out with her boyfriend, she's bound to develop something like that.

The violet eyed girl sat up and surveyed her room. She yawned and got up, heading off to the bathroom to shower. Torey grumbled and pulled himself out of bed to follow her. She turned the water on as hot as she could stand it and just stood in the stream for a few moments, letting the steam wake her up.

She still had a hard time believing what had happened yesterday was real. After Randy had taken her and Davis back to the rip, the two of them had split back to their own worlds, him to sleep, since it was three in the morning in his world. She had watched TV for a while, waiting for something. Maybe a vision. Something to prove that it all had really happened. And nothing had come. She had sat on the sofa with her soul until ten, and then had gone to bed, hoping to wake up in the middle of the night like last time, with some remarkable proof that she was indeed still sane. But she had slept all the way through, just like every other night since Ken had shown up at her door.

"Hey, Torey," she asked, voice echoing off the shower walls as she washed her hair.

"Hmm?" The lynx responded. He was sitting as far from the stream of water as the confines of the tub would allow, licking at his feet whenever they got wet.

"Do you think I'm not gonna have any dreams anymore?"

He frowned. "No, Rika. We aren't that lucky. They'll come back, and I assume they'll be stronger and more clear than ever."

She blinked. "Why?"

"Well, you know me better now. Remember what your father said? The better you know your soul, the better you can see."

The girl sighed and turned around to rinse her hair. She spoke, voice sounding muffled through the running water. "Then why did they go away for so long?"

_I don't know._ He replied, speaking mentally since he knew she couldn't hear him through the water. _Maybe you haven't needed to see anything lately. Before, we really only saw things when they were necessary._

_Was the last one really necessary? I still don't know what it meant._

The lynx sighed as well, a strange feeling in a mental conversation. _Maybe it was a hint at what we're going to have to deal with now._

Rika walked slowly to school, eating a muffin as she went. Torey was squirreled away in her bookbag, trying to act like he was asleep, though she knew he couldn't be if she was awake. A few blocks of silence, and she turned into the schoolyard, kicking at a stone she had brought three blocks already.

"Hey, Rika!" Henry yelled from across the yard, waving her over.

The girl abandoned her rock and trudged over to him. "Where's everybody else?

"Takato went in early this morning to redo that math test he failed. Other than that, I don't know. You're here early today, you know."

She blinked and grabbed at his arm, twisting it around to look at his watch. She was early, and by fifteen minutes at that. "Stupid alarm clock must be running fast again."

The boy rubbed at his arm as she released it again. "It's probably because you reset it so often."

Rika frowned. "Shut up."

As of now, Henry was the only other person she had told about her relationship with Davis, other than her family. It was strange, but she had grown closer to the dark haired boy than any of the other tamers. Maybe that was because he had an annoying habit of figuring things out before she told him anything, but it had still happened. And who's to say that a girl's best friend besides her boyfriend can't be a guy?

"So, how'd it go?" He asked, ignoring her comment.

The redhead sighed, rolling her eyes. "Well, okay, I guess."

"You guess? It's the first date where you guys have actually gone somewhere special, and it was only okay?"

"Shut up, Henry." She hissed, glancing around to make sure no one had heard. She'd never live it down if some cutesy gossip girl found out she had a boyfriend "Look, the dinner was great, but other stuff happened and the rest got cut short. I'll tell you about that later."

He gave her a strange look and opened his mouth to ask something.

"Later." She demanded.

"Hey, Henry!" Takato called from the building, coming out the front door toward them. "I passed this time."

Rika chewed her eraser, staring down at math test before her. Quadratic equation. Quadratic equation. What was it again?

_X equals negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four a c over two a._ Torey rattled off, reading it from the cheat sheet she had stuffed in his face seconds before the test had been handed out.

The girl scratched the equation down and finished off the rest of the test, thanking the color of her eyes that the lynx was there for her. With five minutes to spare, she flipped the sheet over and set her head down on the desk, closing her eyes. She was tired. Always tired. It was that stupid time difference between her world and Davis's. But now, the times were all going to be the same. She smiled into her arm. Maybe they'd stay that way, or at least those two worlds.

She opened her eyes to glance around the room, but almost jumped as she saw purple clouding her vision. She swallowed and set her head down again, closing her eyes so that when she passed out, it would only look like she was sleeping.

_It was a cloud, like a digital field, except lavender. She looked around, trying to see what was supposed to be there, but all her eyes met was the purple of swirling cloud. And then, out of the distance, something emerged. It was large, serpentine, with two huge wings jutting from it's back. The head of the thing, dragon perhaps, was long and pointed, the snout ending where the mouth began, in a tangle of shining white teeth. The long body was smooth and the only other limbs besides the wings were two powerful legs, clawed like an eagle's talons. Above all the other detail, the creature was the palest of blue, starkly contrasting the swirling of lavender surrounding it. It swooped close with a flap of it's monstrous wings, and reared it's head back, sending a flurry of frozen air her way._

"Rika?" Henry whispered, his hand on her shoulder.

She jumped as she came out of the dream. Takato and Henry stared at her as she sat upright. The teacher was watching her from the front of the classroom, a stack of tests in hand. The girl shook her head to clear it and then snatched up the test in front of her. She walked to the front and handed it to him.

"Sorry. I must've fallen asleep after I finished." She muttered.

The teacher nodded and Rika stalked back to her desk to collect her things. The boys followed her out of the room.

"Rika, are you okay?" Henry asked, looking a little worried.

"Had a dream." She responded.

"That's funny." Takato said, shifting the straps on his bookbag. "I never dream when I fall asleep in class."

She frowned and rolled her eyes. "No, stupid. Not that kind of dream. A vision. A foretelling. Whatever you wanna call it."

He blinked. "Oh."

"What happened?" Henry asked. "You haven't had one for a long time."

The girl rubbed her eyes, partially from residual exhaustion from the dream, partially from annoyance at these questions. "I'll tell you guys once we get a table at lunch."

She hurried off to go to her locker, which was farther from theirs. Stuffing books inside, she zipped her bookbag open and peeked inside at Torey.

_Hurry up._ The lynx whispered._ I want some of that pie that always disappears._

Rika shoved her literature book in next to him and closed the bag up again. Quickly, she made her way to the cafeteria, knowing that if the pie was gone, she'd hear about it for the rest of the day. She got in line and thankfully swiped up the second to last piece. The violet eyed girl made her way over to the table she usually sat at during lunch, and found the two boys saving it for them. They looked at her strangely as she arrived, food already in hand.

"Sorry." She said, setting down her tray. "Torey wanted pie."

Takato frowned. "Today's pie day. Darn. Is there any left?"

Rika shook her head as the boys got up to get in line for their food. She set her bookbag up on the table and zipped it open, leaving the flap closed. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she slid the plate of pie inside, and settled down to eat her own lunch. Soon, the two boys returned with their food, and sat down, Takato next to her and Henry across.

"Did he eat it all already?" The gogglehead asked, eyeing her bookbag.

The girl peeked inside, finding the plate already licked clean. "Yup." She said, pulling it out and setting it next to her drink.

He shrugged. "Oh well."

Stabbing a fork repeatedly into his corn, Henry watched Rika. "So, what happened in your dream?"

She frowned as she stuck a bite of pineapple in her mouth. "That doesn't really matter." She sighed and stared at the lights overhead for a moment.

_Tell them._ Torey urged.

"Fine." The girl replied out loud, ripping her straw out of it's plastic wrapping and stabbing it into her drink carton, spilling some. "What's really important is what happened last night."

The dark haired boy stared at her, eyebrows raised. His eyes flicked over to Takato for a second.

Rika just frowned, annoyed. She waved a hand at him to shut him up she looked over at her other friend to begin the story. "So, I was poking around the digital world last night with Renamon, and we got attacked by this weird digimon..."

She went on with her story, talking quietly so the people around them wouldn't hear her. She went through all of it. The fight with Felsemon and appearance of Delphiniumon. Nora's story and their ride through the blue transition world. Slowly, she began the discussion they had had with Adara and the others, about the time pattern cycle and the Core of the digital world. After a while, the boys stopped asking questions when they were confused and just stared at her, mouths slightly open. The only thing she left out of her story, was why she had been in the digital world in the first place, and she changed when Davis had come into the picture. Eventually, with only five minutes left in lunch, she finished. Takato just stared. Henry did the same for a moment before recovering.

"So, they want us to go to the center of the digital world, and destroy this thing?"

"No." Rika frowned and stabbed her fork into the foam of her tray, making a pattern with the holes. "I said they want us to help them kill some of his henchmen. I think I dreamed about one of them. It was an ice dragon."

Takato blinked. "An ice dragon?"

Henry licked his lips. "So, when is this whole thing gonna happen?"

The girl shrugged, relinquishing her fork and leaning back in her chair. "Whenever they try to contact us again, I guess."

"And we'll be able to fight again?" Takato asked. "Guilmon's been wanting to for a while."

The dark haired boy nodded. "Yeah. Terriermon too. He's got way too much energy lately."

The bell rang. Rika zipped up her bookbag and put it on, grabbing her trash. "I guess you should get everybody else together at my house after school. I can tell then too."

The boys nodded, and the three of them left the lunchroom, dropping their trash in the garbage and going to class.

Finally, the last class of the day rolled around. They were watching a movie that week, so Rika sat in her desk and stared at the television that had been rolled into the classroom. She was bored. The lights were turned off in the room, but she couldn't seem to fall asleep like she had yesterday, despite the fact that she was tired. There was too much on her mind right now.

She pulled out her notebook and paged through it until she found a blank sheet somewhere in the back. Digging a pencil and eraser out of her bookbag, she pulled her legs up on the chair, sitting Indian style, and tried to remember the dream she'd had during algebra. Hesitating for a moment, she set the tip of her lead to the paper and started to draw the ice monster. It had a long body, slick like an icicle, but flexible and curved. Cruel mouth full of jagged teeth, and feet just as cruelly armed. The wings were the hardest, running off the page as she drew them to size.

_What are you doing? _Torey asked as she finished up with the drawing._ I'm bored._

_I drew the dragon._ She answered, setting her pencil down and frowning at the graphite coating her pinkie.

_Let me see._

The girl shook her hand out and grabbed the bookbag off the floor. She set it in her lap and carefully zipped the top open a few inches. Torey peeked out, keeping his head inside. He stared at the drawing for a second, scrutinizing it, and then nodding.

_It's good. Those drawing books you get from the library are helping._

Rika allowed herself the tiniest of smiles before closing the bag up again and setting it on the floor. She sighed, shutting the notebook and crossing her arms over it.

Rika glanced around the room. They were sitting in her living room, populating her sofa and chairs, leaving her to sit on the table. Next to her, Torey yawned and let his hazel eyes sweep over the humans expressions, trying to read them. The two of them had finished retelling the story of last night to the tamers that hadn't been at lunch with them. Jeri sat next to Takato on the sofa, eyes wide as she clutched Katzemon to her chest.

The little digimon was the in-training form of Leomon, having just increased in level from Katjemon last month. He looked very much like his younger counterpart, except with a body and mouth. At the moment, his expression was just as innocently confused as his tamer's.

Kenta sat next to Takato, eyes locked with his own digimon, who was perched on the arm of the sofa. Kazu was sitting in a chair to Rika's left. He looked like he had spaced off somewhere during her story, and was now trying to piece together the information he had missed. Which annoyed her. On her other side, Henry was slouched down in the armchair. His sunglasses had fallen over his eyes, and he sat there, arms crossed over his chest, watching her over the tops of them. Sitting on the floor, his sister had Terriermon and Lopmon sitting on either side of her, as she fiddled with the tips of their ears where the long appendages fell into her lap.

"So, when do we go?" Kazu asked, seeming to have retrieved all the information he could find in that head of his.

She frowned, annoyed at being asked that question so much. "I said whenever they come back and ask us to go."

"All right," Henry cut in, seeming to sense her approaching anger and taking over for a second. "Do we all acknowledge that we want to do this, despite the bad things that can happen?"

Everyone nodded, although Jeri and Kenta looked a little apprehensive. Henry just looked at them, eyes barely visible above his glasses.

The girl looked away. "Yes. I am. It's just that..." She looked down at Katzemon. "He's not very strong yet."

"But, we'll go." The kitten digimon said, voice surprisingly tenor for his small body.

Marineangemon made some squeaking noises to his partner, and Kenta slouched down a little, not looking happy. "We'll go too."

"Okay." Henry sat up and leaned forward, setting his elbows on his knees and lacing his hands together in front of himself. "I think we need to realize that this is gonna be harder than anything we've ever fought before. We've fought mega levels, but never anything stronger." He looked over at Rika, over the glasses again. "Do you think we're ready?"

The violet eyed girl blinked, letting her face go distant for a moment. She glanced over at the picture of the ice drake, lying open next to her. She shrugged. "I don't know. From the dream, it was really powerful. But that doesn't really mean anything until we fight it."

"We'll be fine." Takato said, standing up and smiling, full of bravado. "We beat the D-Reaper after all. And that was a while ago. Our digimon are probably even stronger now."

"Yeah." Kazu added, throwing his legs over the arm of his chair to sit sideways, putting on his bragging face. "Me and Gaurdromon are plenty strong enough to take out one ice lizard. I bet we could do it by ourselves."

"No way. You'd need mine and Takato's help." Kenta threw in, falling for it.

The three boys fell into fighting over whose digimon was stronger and which was better at fighting. Rika sighed, rubbing her temples as she shut her notebook. Henry slouched down in his chair again. Jeri squeezed out from the midst of the argument and sat next to Rika, watching them safely from the sidelines.

"Could you guys keep it down in there?" Rika heard her mom call. The woman appeared in the doorway, hand over the mouthpiece of the phone.

"Sorry." They chorused, and Takato glanced at his watch. "Oh, shoot. I have to get home. I was supposed to deliver bread after school. I completely forgot."

The violet eyed girl led the lot of them to the door, and eventually shoved them all out. Takato ran off, and then Kazu and Kenta each headed home with the excuse of homework. Rika doubted if the spiky haired boy would be doing much of that, though. Jeri left as well, since she had to tutor for the preschool she volunteered at. With the house more empty, the redhead went back to the living room, where Henry still hadn't budged, though Suzie was playing with their two digimon in front of the sofa.

Rika stepped in front of the dark haired boy, looking down at him. "What's your problem?"

He sighed and took off his sunglasses, rubbing his eyes. "Do you really think we can do this, Rika?"

She ignored him and walked off to the kitchen. After a moment, he got up and followed her. She pulled the fridge open and dug around inside for a while, looking for anything unhealthy to eat. Nothing. She closed it up again.

"Do you?" He asked again, leaning against the counter.

The violet eyed girl fixed him with a stare. "What do you want me to say? No? We'll fail? It'll be the end of the world? I actually think we can do it. It'll be hard, but we'll pull through." She started poking around in the drawers. "You shouldn't be so pessimistic."

He laughed. "I prefer realistic."

She nodded sarcastically. "Right. Go home, Henry. Do your homework and stop worrying about it. We'll be fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

He went off to collect his sister as Rika searched the cabinets for something good. Dry pasta. Salt. Crackers. A tub of chocolate frosting. That'll do. She took the brown can off the shelf and pealed the silver liner off the top. Walking back to the living room, she scooped a glob out of the container with a finger and stuck it in her mouth.

"Come on, Suzie. We have to go home now."

The little girl looked sad, and Rika was surprised to see Renamon playing with her. The fox stood and helped Suzie to her feet.

"Bye Renamon." She cooed as Henry led her toward Rika and the door, Terriermon and Lopmon in tow.

"Are you really eating that?" The boy asked as he noticed what she had in her hand.

"Yeah." She said, dunking her finger into the brown fudge again. "Now, can I please have some peace and quiet to do my homework in?"

He smiled and she let him out.

**neoKOS-MOS:** Was this one a little longer than usual? I think I'm getting better at length. It's not many writers who have trouble with length. Mostly brevity. Oh, and I have a dilemma. I said there's gonna be three major bad guys they fight, but I can't think of how to split the groups up. Any suggestions. And please don't just say I should do it by season. Thanks! And please review.

_cutekitty:_ Yay! You returned. Glad you liked both of them. I was sure putting Dairuki in the summary would attract people.

_Dark Qiviut:_ Lucky you. Cruise to the Bahamas? I've never been out of the Midwest, much less the country. But, anyway, I'm glad you liked it. I was pretty sure you would, since you're an epic fan. And I see no one likes Adara. weep Perhaps she didn't get the best intro. Later. Write about a pairing I hate? I'll have to think about that one…


	5. Shaping Up

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon or Pullman's stuff. The other stuff is mine.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Sorry for the long wait.Why do I always have to apologize in the beginning? Well, my computer still hates me, and muse is running around between three different things at the moment. Flashes of inspiration here, flashes of inspiration there. Mostly there. But, anyway, this is a short one. Basically Davis's version of spreading the word. Fun in parts though. Hope you like it.

**Shaping Up**

Davis was dreaming. Fuzzy blue mist was everywhere. Something was yelling in the distance and he was being jabbed in the arm. He kept turning around to see what it was, but nothing was there. After a moment, he realized what the yelling was.

"Wake up, Davis."

Brown eyes opened. Demiveemon noticed and stopped poking him in the arm. Red numbers glowed next to his bed. Still half in the dream, the boy raised his arm and shut off the alarm clock. The yelling noise stopped. He closed his eyes and fell back asleep again. The little blue cynodont instantly started punching him in the back. Davis moaned, rolling over to try to crush his partner.

"Get up, Davis." Ken called from the door. "We're gonna be late."

The door closed again, and the gogglehead slowly pulled himself out of bed. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the alarm clock.

"Three hours." He muttered. Only three hours of sleep last night.

Grabbing some clothes, he went to shower and then ate breakfast. Ken was watching him across the kitchen table.

"Are you all right?"

Eyes closed, Davis spooned cereal into his mouth. "So tired."

"You guys have to find a better way to get together."

"There isn't one." He squinted his eyes open to look for his drink. "It's the stupid world time difference."

"But isn't that going away now?" He heard Demiveemon ask from where he was sitting with Wormmon on the table.

Davis paused for a moment. _Oh yeah._

_You didn't forget, did you, Davis?_ Roxelle asked.

He sighed. _Well, I did have some pretty crazy dreams last night._

"What do you mean?" Ken asked the cynodont.

"There's a cycle coming up when all the world times will be the same." The cinnamon haired boy responded.

"What? How do you know?"

The boy shrugged, too tired to explain it all now. "Did Jun come home last night?"

"Uh, yeah." Ken hesitated over the change in subject. "I don't know when, but her shoes are by the door."

Davis opened his eyes again to look at the door. Yep. Two old blue gym shoes next to his mom's gray ones. He looked down at his breakfast. Sighing, he picked up the bowl and dumped what was left in the sink.

"Let's go. We're gonna be late."

Sitting in Chemistry, Davis tried not to fall asleep. The teacher was droning on about benzene rings. Only he could give an entire period's lecture about benzene rings. Minutes inched by. The clock stopped, and yet, somehow, the teacher still continued talking. Davis laid his head down on his notebook. Across the aisle, TK's seat stood empty. Where was this kid?

_He crashes my date. Shows up with his weird girlfriend who takes us through some nutty world to a room where you can spy on anyone you want. Then she and her team recruit us to kill something that's unkillable._

_I thought you were excited about going._ Roxelle cut in, shifting herself where she lounged next to him in the aisle.

_I am. It was just so weird. Surreal almost._

Their rhetorical conversation was cut off by a knock on the door. The teacher stopped mid-sentence and went to open it. TK stepped inside and handed him a note before going to take his seat. Davis stared at him as the blonde boy sat in his empty desk. All he got was a smile and a shrug.

_It's fourth period. What's he doing getting here now?_

Roxelle just shook her head, a mental question mark.

The clock stopped again as he waited for the class to end. Davis took to drawing the stupid benzene rings all over the margins of his notebook so the teacher would stop glaring at him for looking so bored. Dozens of little hexagons covered the page when the bell finally rang, their chemical formula forever engraved in his memory.

He shoved his stuff in his bookbag and looked up to see if TK had waited for him. Instead, the other boy was asleep on his desk. Davis smacked him and he woke up.

"Class is over."

TK sucked in a breath and got up, grabbing his own bookbag. The two boys left the room with the teacher's glare behind them.

"What's wrong with you?" Davis asked. "You come in late and sleep in class. Do you want to endanger your grade?"

TK waved him off. "I was tired. It takes a long time to get out of the Core. It's not like we could cut through to the transition world and take the train. We had to walk. And the digital world's time frame is slowing down."

"So how long were you there?"

"About a week."

Davis nodded and looked around the hall.

"Did you tell Ken about MIRROR this morning?" The other boy asked.

The brunette frowned. "Yeah, right. I barely slept three hours last night. I was feeling primed and ready to tell him the whole story when I woke up."

"You have to do it soon." TK said, stopping off at his locker.

Davis leaned against the wall. "I think you should tell him. Tell everyone. After school."

The blonde boy paused in dropping his History book into the locker. "Why can't you do it?"

"What? Why can't you do it?"

TK sighed and shoved a binder into his bookbag. His eyes flicked over to Davis. "They're gonna wonder why I know so much. I don't exactly want them to know I'm with Nora yet."

"So don't tell them."

"That's easier said than done, Davis."

"It's not that hard. "He replied. "You just twist the truth around a little. That's what I always do when I'm going to meet Rika."

"Yeah." TK whispered. He blinked. "Wait. What?"

Davis stopped. His heart jumped.

"You're dating Rika?"

The gogglehead felt himself blush and ran a hand through his hair. "Um, Yeah. You didn't know?"

The other boy blinked at him again, and then broke out into a grin. "Oh, I get it now. That's why you guys are together so often."

"Shut up, TK." He pushed the locker door closed. "You keep my secret, I'll keep yours."

"So. We'll both tell everyone after school?"

Davis nodded.

"Great. I'll e-mail Sora, Tai, Matt, and Izzy when I'm in the computer lab next period. You tell everyone else to meet there after school."

The brunette nodded again and the two boys went off to their separate classes.

Yolei was so annoying. It was like she'd memorized the entire book. She knew the answer to every darn question. Davis could hear her mumbling them to herself behind him.

"Golgi Apparatus." She whispered, answering yet another question for seemingly no other reason than to flaunt her grade in everyone else's face.

"Shut up, Yolei." He hissed through clenched teeth.

She poked him in the back with a finger. He glanced over his shoulder at her and caught her grinning at him. He snapped back to face forward and slumped down in his seat. Only a few moments of peace passes before she poked him in the back again. He would have ignored her, except for the crinkle of paper. The boy reached back to take the note from her and spread it flat on his book.

_'What crawled up your butt and died?'_

He frowned down at the sentence, Grabbing his pen, he tapped it on the paper a few times, considering a few vulgar things he could write back. Making his decision, the boy grinned and started to scrawl out one of them until Roxelle nipped his leg.

"Ow." He grunted and crossed out what he had written.

_Tell her about after school._

So, instead he wrote, _'Are you doing anything after school?'_ He handed it back to the plum haired girl.

After a second she passed it up to him again. _'Are you hitting on your best friend's girlfriend?'_

"Stupid." He whispered back to her, annoyed by the quiet giggle he heard behind him.

The boy drew a line through her words and write beneath them. _'TK is calling a meeting in the computer lab when school's out.'_ He gave it to her over his shoulder.

"Why didn't you just say that?" The girl whispered to him.

"Are you coming or not?"

"Of course. I've been wondering what TK's been doing with all the time he spends in the digital world."

Davis grinned. "You'll be surprised."

"Davis?"

The gogglehead jumped as the teacher called his name.

"Can you answer the question?"

He blinked. "Um..."

"Mitochondrial DNA." Yolei whispered to him from behind.

And this time he was glad she knew everything. "Mitochondrial DNA." He announced to the class.

The teacher looked a little confused and disappointed that he'd known the answer. "Uh, right." She turned back to the board to continue with the lesson.

It took a while for everyone to show up at the computer lab after the final bell rang. Strangely, the older kids were already there, sans Izzy, when Davis walked in the door. Tai was on one of the computers, with Matt peering over his shoulder at the screen. Sora was standing by the window, looking outside.

"Am I the first one here?" He asked.

"Nope." Kari replied, and he glanced over to see her drawing red flowers on the dry-erase board mounted on the wall.

The boy sighed and dumped his bookbag on the floor next to the door, going over to see what Sora was looking at. As he stepped up next to her, he realized that she was smiling.

"What is it?" He asked.

The older girl pointed a finger toward the parking lot. "Izzy's got a flat tire."

The brunette peeked out and saw the genius changing the tire of his black jeep. For a geek, he had no problem with a manual task like that. Davis himself didn't even know how to change a tire.

"How'd it go flat. Did he drive on it here?"

Sora shook her head. "No. He ran over a nail in the lot when he was parking. Made me carry in his laptop so he could change it." She motioned to thin black computer lying next to Matt's guitar case.

The girl frowned and turned away from the window and walked over to the door to peek out.

"Is anyone coming?" Kari asked, looking up from the flower covered whiteboard.

Sora backed up and let Yolei and Ken file inside. They both waved at Davis.

Matt moved over and sat in one of the computer chairs, leaning back and running a hand through his blonde hair. "So everybody's here but the one who called the meeting in the first place."

"Wait for Izzy." Kari said, throwing her red marker into a bin of about thirty other colors.

"What's this whole thing about, Davis?" Yolei asked, surveying the expression of the gogglehead, from his position by the window. "Ken said you knew something you weren't telling him."

"Well, uh, I don't really know all that much. I only know what I found out last night. It's just that, uh..."

"Wait for Izzy." Kari demanded.

Davis held up his hands. "Okay. Sorry." He glanced out the window again, but the older boy had left the parking lot and was nowhere to be seen.

"Sorry I'm late."

Izzy walked in the room, rubbing his hands together to get the tire dirt off of them. TK followed him in, grinning around the room.

"Okay. Let's get started." The blonde boy said and went over to the table along the wall. He shoved some books aside and sat up on it, glancing at Davis. "We've got help coming, too."

Confused, the brunette walked over to stand next to his friend. "Who?"

"You'll see. Anyway," he turned to the rest of his confused audience. "You all know I've been spending a lot of time in the digital world lately. I've told some of you that I've been exploring some new changes." He looked around. "Well, that's only partially true."

Izzy smiled crossed his arms over his chest. No one else moved. They all just stared.

"Um," the silence seemed to faze TK. He shook his head and began. "Well, a few months ago, Patamon and I were contacted by a team of kids from another world, much like Davis found the Tamers."

"You found a rip and didn't tell us?" Kari asked, sounding hurt.

TK blinked. "No. I said they contacted me. And they didn't come through a permanent rip like Takato and the others did. They knew their digivices could cut between the worlds, and they have for a while. They're a part of a balancing organization called MIRROR, which serves to protect the universe from the forces of evil."

"The universe?" Yolei asked. "What does that mean?"

The blonde boy nudged Davis, prompting him to take the question.

"Um," the gogglehead blinked. "Well, I said I only found out last night, but from what they told us, our world and the digital world aren't the only ones out there."

"Duh." Tai rolled his eyes. "There's the Tamers' world as well."

"Yeah," Davis responded, "but there's a lot more than just that." He pulled out his digivice and showed them the world number he'd displayed on the screen. "It says 683. So that accounts for at least that many worlds, though I'm guessing there's a bunch more above the number."

"Right." Izzy cut in. "There's multiple worlds in the same basic universe. They're all right next to each other, but fundamentally separated. There's no traveling between them."

Everyone turned to stare at him. He suddenly looked embarrassed and sat down in one of the chairs. "Sorry. It's basic M-theory stuff."

Everyone blinked.

Kari sighed. "It's what he's writing his Bachelor's thesis paper on."

"Oh." Yolei looked confused. "Well, if you could tell us what's going on in the universe, why didn't you?"

Izzy gave her a dry look. "Do you really want to go there with me? This is incredibly complicated stuff. Even you wouldn't follow it."

"Anyway," TK demanded, trying to turn the conversation back into his story. "I've been working with the MIRROR team for a while now, and they've been teaching me a lot of stuff about the structure of the universe. In essence, there are thousands of worlds like ours, and then there's the digital world, which permeates all the worlds and serves as a connection between them."

Davis watched Izzy. The college boy looked really excited at the moment. "So that's why we can travel between them?"

Both younger boys nodded at the same time. Davis took his turn talking. "And now, it turns out, there's some supreme evil being trying to take over the entire digital world, not just the part assigned to one of our little worlds. So, if he succeeds, he gets the whole universe to rule."

"And that's not a good thing." TK said.

"No kidding." Tai responded.

Footsteps echoed outside in the hall, and Davis looked up to see Randy step into the room. He grinned at everyone. "Hi. I'm Randy. TK called me in to help him out with the whole explanation. I'm the crossworld ambassador for MIRROR team 37."

Everyone stared again. He launched into the recruitment speech.

**neoKOS-MOS:** Sucky ending, I know. Seems right though. Now I'm taking a few days off to tend to my other inspiration. Though, I am excited for the next chapter. We get to meet the fourth member of MIRROR! And I think you'll all be surprised. Plesantly, I hope. Still hoping to get some suggestions on how to split everyone up into four teams. E-mail me if you think of anything. Thanks!

_Dark Qiviut:_ Thanks again for all the suggestions. I have so much to think over for the future of this story. Need names for my bad guys. Need an ending. Need mini-plots to fill up the holes. Glad you like the conversation in the end. It was kinda funny. I personally liked Renamon playing with Suzie.

_miracles-3:_ I loved that you updated Collide. Do it again, when you get the time, of course. And I'm glad that I write a good enough story that you'd actually want to read it word for word. Yay! No skimming! dancing

_ApricotKisses:_ Glad you're so happy about this. What is it that gets you so much? I have to say, I was inspired by reading your fics, and that's what brought about the Henry and Rika friendship stuff. Write some more. I'll give you a list of brainstorm topics later. And, if you want my book when I finish it, I'll give you a signed first addition. Just gotta finish it…

Please review on your way out. Thanks again…


	6. Danger in the Shadows

**Disclaimer:** You know what's not mine. Everything else I claim.

**neoKOS-MOS: **So, I said I was taking a few days off, but that didn't happen. In a fit of inspiration, I sat down and wrote this all out in two days. I really like this chapter. It's different, and fast paced. And I decided to get back to the basics. Used a non-original digimon for once, and tried my hand at card fighting.

Hope you like it. Read on.

**Danger in the Shadows**

Rika's eyes snapped open. She was lying in bed late at night. It was quiet in her room, and she could hear the crickets chirping outside. Despite the safe sounds, she couldn't fight off the strange feeling that something was going to happen, something foreboding and dark. The girl looked over at the corner of the room, searching for her digimon. She sat slumped against the wall, eyes closed and twitching as she slept. Even though no danger had awoken the fox to protect her partner, the fear didn't leave Rika. She had a terrifying feeling that something was about to go wrong.

"The power's out." Torey whispered, his ashy head poking out from under the blankets.

Rika looked over at her alarm clock. The display was black, no red numbers glowing beneath the glass. She glanced at the window, and noticed that the lights outside were off as well. It was all too dark for her taste.

The girl sat up, and then stood, staring at the door for a while before raising the courage to take the first step toward it. She paced barefoot across the cold floor and stood at the door, one palm pressed against its surface. She set her ear to the thin wood and listened for a second. Nothing. The crickets were still chirping, and she could hear the trickle of water in the pond outside.

Torey pressed himself against her leg, and she could feel his little heart beating quickly, faster than her own, but not by much. He was scared too. But whatever it was that was out there, they had to find out what was going to happen. It was a seer's duty. She pressed her hand more firmly on the door and slid it open an inch, just enough to peek out. It was too dark to see anything but shadow. There was no movement, so she slid it open a little further and stepped out, bare feet on the chilly wooden floor.

She looked around, eyes wide in the darkness to catch any light they could. Nothing. But it was too dark, too still for her.

"Rika?" Torey breathed, his feline voice barely audible even in the intense silence.

"Shhh." Came a whisper from the bushes.

Rika jumped to get back inside, to the safety her digimon provided. Why had she come out alone? Before she could move, a dark shape shot out of the bushes and pinned her against the wall. A thin hand clamped itself over her mouth, and pulled her lower. Her knees buckled and she found herself almost sitting, still held firmly in place against the wall.

"No!" Torey yelled, bristling, and launched himself at Rika's attacker. Claws sunk into strange leathery skin.

But a torrent of foreign emotions flooded into Rika's mind as her soul touched another creature. Anger. Sadness. Confusion. Fear. Hope. Sincerity. Trust. Friendship. Good intentions over shrouding the darker feelings, so that they faded away, and only the good was left.

"Torey, no!" The girl screamed as they both realized that this was not an attacker, but a friend. The lynx fell away, and Rika collapsed against the wall, no longer pinned by the other being.

"Who are you?" She asked, still unable to make out the shape of the person before her in the darkness.

"I'm," he said, dark form shifting around. "I'm Sky."

Rika was struck as she recognized the voice. It was the one they had heard over the intercom while at MIRROR. The one that had cut the conversation short. He sounded so young, like a child, and with a strange, barely noticeable accent.

"You're from MIRROR." She whispered, squinting to see him in the dark. He looked strange.

"Yeah. Ouch." The figure twisted around again, and she guessed that he was tending to the cuts Torey had inflicted. "Sorry I scared you. I just didn't want anyone to hear. We're in danger here, and we should leave."

The girl blinked, and nodded. "Can I get some stuff?"

"Yeah. Get your digivice and cards. There might be some fighting we have to do."

Rika stood and slipped back into her room. It was darker inside, but she knew where everything was, one of the ups of keeping a clean room. She grabbed her digivice and cards from the dresser, and took her gym shoes from where they sat by the door. Then she went over to her sleeping digimon.

"Renamon." The girl whispered, unnerved that the fox was still sleeping despite the struggle that had happened a moment before. Big eyes opened, gleaming in the darkness, and the digimon looked up at her. "We have to go."

Silently, Rika turned back to the doorway and emerged outside. Through the floorboards, she felt Sky step up next to her.

"Quietly." The childlike voice whispered. "Try to follow me. I'll be watching you, so you won't get lost in the dark."

She opened her mouth to ask him why the power was out, but saw a hint of his dark shape streak across the yard toward the gate. She set her shoes on the ground and pulled them on before running off after him, glad she hadn't left them at the front entrance. Stopping at the gate, Rika looked both ways down the street, wondering where Sky had gone.

"Here." He said, making her jump as his voice came from right next to her, concealed in the dark.

Again, she barely saw him run off down the road, and followed as best she could. They ran down the roadway until they reached the city, and Rika followed Sky's ghosting shadow through the empty streets. At corners, she would lose him, to find him running back to get her. It was so dark with the street lights out; even the stoplights were black as night. There was no one on the street either. Rika had no idea what time it was, but even if it was one in the morning, there should have been some people on the street. And there were no cars driving about either, the lack of their headlights making the city feel like a ghost town. The sense of foreboding hit her again.

Sky appeared next to her.

"Where is everyone?" She whispered to his barely-visible shape.

"They've been sent to their homes. Nerezzamon doesn't like people interfering in his search."

Rika felt a shiver go up her spine at the tone of his voice as he breathed the name. "Search?"

"For you. And the other Tamers." His shape moved forward, walking slowly for once. The girl paced next to him. "I'm sorry. We would have warned you earlier, but we didn't know he was going to attack so soon."

The girl suddenly realized that his voice was coming from lower, about her chest level. She looked harder at his blurry shape, and saw that it wasn't human. "Are you a digimon?" She asked, startled that he wasn't what she had thought he was.

He said nothing, but a smile had touched his voice as he spoke. "You'll see." Again, he streaked ahead of her.

She ran after the dark shape, heart beating in her chest. Feet ghosting over cement and tile, Renamon was trailing her along the rooftops. Suddenly, Rika felt something large and cruel come out of the darkness. A giant clawed hand reached out of the shadows and grabbed at her. She felt the chill of crimson talons wrap around her waist, and screamed for her digimon. There was the glint of reflected light as shards of glass flew into the dark. The enemy digimon roared and dropped his captive.

Rika scrambled to her feet and raced away from the spot. She saw Renamon's lighter shape move between her and the creature in the darkness. Heart beating loud in her chest, the girl pulled her digivice out of a pocket and looked down at it. The glow from it's display lit up the street as the data scrolled across.

"Devidramon." She whispered, trying to calm down. He was only champion, easy pickings for her partner.

Renamon leapt backward as the dark dragon lunged forward to attack her. A flash of deep red ripped through the air as the fox moved out of the way. She sent another of hail of diamond flying toward him, but Devidramon growled and flapped his tattered black wings. A gale of dark energy ripped through the shards and struck Renamon. Wind whirled around Rika, and she squeezed her eyes closed as dust was thrust into them.

When she got her sight back, the girl stared into the darkness, trying to make out what was going on. She heard both the dragon and fox yelling out their attacks as they fought, but could only see blurs of dark and pale. There was a sort of black mist in the air.

"Rika."

The girl jumped, letting out a yelp as she heard Sky speak next to her. She pressed a hand to her chest and looked down at his shadowy form.

"Sorry." He whispered. "I forget you can't see me. We should get out of here. It's not safe with so much noise."

"What about Renamon?"

There was a thud a few yards away, and Rika looked over to see her partner's pale form limp on the ground. She pulled her cards out and tried to look through them, but couldn't see anything.

"Here." Sky said, taking them from her and shuffling through them. "Use this one." He handed one back to her before returning the rest of her deck.

The girl slashed it through her digivice and looked over to her digimon to see what she had used. Renamon pulled herself to a standing position as her left hand began to glow. Pale pink light flooded the area and a bow began to grow from the paw. Rika looked down at the card between her fingers. It was Angewomon's Bow. She glanced over to her other side to look at Sky, but the creature had disappeared again.

They were standing in the middle of an intersection, the four corners of the street just visible inside the circle of light. Renamon pulled back on the bowstring, and a pink arrow formed along her arm. Devidramon reared back and took to the air, trying to escape the attack. Taking aim, the fox loosed the arrow, and watched as the pink-lit shaft shot up into the darkness, sinking deep into the black dragon.

The weapon dissolved, plunging the battlefield back into pitch darkness. A crash sounded, Devidramon falling back to earth. Eyes shocked by the sudden presence and then loss of light, Rika squinted to see her partner. After a second, she saw the fox kneeling down, tired.

"He's stronger than he should be, Rika." She called.

There was a reptilian laugh as the dragon overheard. "We are all serving under lord Nerezzamon. Would you think he would let _ordinary_ digimon fight amongst his ranks?"

A flash of bright red cut through the darkness, and Devidramon's gaze struck Renamon directly. She cried out and fell backwards. Rika heard the scratch of painted nails across the asphalt, and knew he was approaching to finish her partner off. Panicked, she shuffled blind through her deck again, hoping to find another good card. She took one and slashed it through her digivice, but nothing seemed to happen.

"No!" The girl yelled, knowing Devidramon was very close.

But her shout was echoed by Sky, whose voice came from the spot where Renamon had collapsed.

The black dragon laughed, the sound coming from almost over the two. "You and I are so alike. Why do you work with those light worshipers?"

"I'm nothing like you." Sky returned defiantly.

A screeching noise ripped through the air. It was pitched horribly high and was extremely loud. Rika slapped her hands over her ears and winced at the sound. Devidramon howled and reared back. He roared again, most likely covering his own ears as well.

The girl stared into the darkness. Was that Sky's attack? Was he really a digimon? The sound was coming from where his voice had been a second ago. She moaned, sinking to the ground and feeling nauseous at the high pitched screech. It seemed to go on for hours, the sounds of Devidramon's howl doing nothing to overpower it.

"Quiet!" The dragon roared, slashing in dull red at Sky.

A lightning-bright yellow flash pierced the darkness. Devidramon's attack collided with a hemispherical shield of crackling yellow electricity. The screeching sound stopped. For a split second, Rika saw that there were now three beings before the black dragon. Renamon still lay limp on the ground. The other two were unfamiliar. The taller one looked like a black kangaroo, very thin, with large ears. It screamed and shuttered painfully. The other was definitely a digimon, a creature somewhere between canine and reptilian, almost chameleon-like. He was about the size of a large dog, and his skin was bright yellow with spider-webbing black stripes. He had a frill around his neck and had the remnants of wings on his back, only the ribbing left without membrane. The street plunged again into deep blackness as the shield blinked out.

"Sky, run!" Ordered a new voice, deep baritone.

There was a whimper, and Rika heard pebbles of asphalt scatter as feet scampered over the ground. Angry, Devidramon slashed out again, and his attack struck the electric yellow barrier for a second time. A crackling sound rose off the surface as the dragon pressed harder, trying to break through. The chameleon digimon stood in the center of the forcefield, with only Renamon beside him. He was glaring up at the four scarlet eyes staring back down at him. Squaring his canine shoulders, he raised the tattered wings.

"Leave now, and I'll let you live."

The black dragon laughed, snarling in the yellow glare. "What makes you think you can defeat me?"

The chameleon smiled and spread the bones of his wings. Each reached almost his body length, and a crackling of saffron electricity leapt between the ribs, creating a glowing wing. The barrier fell, and the smaller digimon leapt out of the way. He flapped his wings at the ground, and arcs of buzzing energy leapt along the asphalt, reaching up to zap Devidramon's feet.

The dark creature roared and sent a glaring red attack toward his opponent. The yellow digimon leapt aside and shook himself. The frill around his neck electrified, sending bright yellow energy zapping over his own skin. It concentrated itself into a white-hot glowing ball on his tail. The chameleon turned to the side and flicked the orb at Devidramon. The black dragon turned to run, but the sphere collided with his back, and electricity ran through his body. Dark data began dissolving off the larger creature even before he hit the ground.

The yellow digimon stood still, cracklingly bright wings raised until all of Devidramon's data had disappeared back into the digital world. Then, he sighed and lowered his wings, the saffron light blinking out and plunging the area back into the deep blackness.

"Sky, are you all right?" She heard him call out.

There was a moan that sounded like it came from within a building, and then the other creature answered. "Chispamon, help me."

Rika blinked in the dark. Chispamon? That was Randy's digimon, wasn't it?

He sighed and she heard his scratching footsteps move toward her. A scaly head touched her hand.

"Rika, you should give Renamon an energy boost so we can get you guys to safety."

"I," she swallowed. "I can't see."

There was an electric sound, and an amber light crackled across his nose, giving her enough light to see. She stared at his reptilian face for a moment, until he motioned for her to look through her cards. The girl shuffled through them until she found the card she was looking for. The light crackled out as she swiped it through her digivice, giving Renamon more energy.

"Come on." The chameleon whispered, and she felt his tail sweep by her hand.

Grabbing onto the tip of it, the girl followed him as he walked. It seemed even darker now, after all the light during the battle. They walked over to the sidewalk, and Rika stepped up onto it, tripping over the curb. She felt Renamon's hand steady her, and looked over. She couldn't see the fox, but knew she was there.

"Ouch." Chispamon said, stopping abruptly. "Stupid wall." He muttered before calling out. "Sky, where are you?"

"Here." The childlike voice answered, slightly muffled and with a hint of pain.

The chameleon grumbled and Rika heard his scaly paws scrape across the wall, feeling for the door. He found it and pulled it open, a glint of reflected light shining off the glass as he did. The two females followed him inside as he again felt along the walls, looking for another door.

"Sky?"

"Here." He called again, voice coming right next to Rika.

She turned and pressed her hands against the wall next to her, and soon found the door to the room. She twisted the doorknob and opened it.

Sky's little voice moaned again in the pitch black of the room. Chispamon scuttled by Rika's leg and went inside.

"You're okay." He said.

"It hurts though." The younger voice replied, hurt.

"You've been in brighter light for longer before."

"Yeah, but you don't understand. It burns!"

"Come on, Sky. We've got a job to do." There were sounds of movement, most likely Chispamon pushing his friend to his feet.

"I'm blind." Sky whispered.

"It's okay. Use your other sense to see. We have to get them to safety."

There was a sigh, and then a quiet chirp echoed in the room. Footsteps approached.

"Come on, Rika." The young voice whispered, and he slipped his thin hand into hers, leading her outside.

They left the building, and Chispamon set the wrist of one of his wings into her other hand. It was darker now than ever. "Hurry up, Sky, before Nerezzamon finds us. His mist is really thickening."

There was another chirp, and Sky pulled at the girl's hand, leading her through the dark. His pace was quick, and she had to jog to keep up. They raced on like that for a few minutes, the air getting blacker all the time. Rika felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck, and got that sick nervous felling in her stomach. Something bad was coming.

_Hurry,_ she willed.

"Okay." Sky whispered, slowing to a stop.

He released her hand and she heard him take something out. There was a familiar noise, the sound of a digivice forming the cutting blade, but no light at all. After a second, she heard the muffled noise of a quiet buzzing.

"Come on, Rika. Step through." Sky whispered.

"What?"

"Here." He said, taking her arm and leading her toward something. "Now step through."

She did so, and felt the ends of her shoes brush over the invisible barrier between worlds. "What is this?"

"Sit down." He whispered, pulling her lightly down, and then pushing her toward the floor. She slowly obeyed.

The girl heard Chispamon jump through and felt the presence of Renamon next to her. Again, there was the sound of the rip closing, but no light of the energy blade. It was still black.

"What is this?" She demanded.

"Be patient." The electric digimon said. "Sky, hurry up and get that thing on."

Rika sat quietly on the floor, listening intently to the sounds coming from a few yards away. It sounded like the movement of a heavy fabric. There was the zip of zippers and click of buckles, and then silence.

"Okay." The young voice whispered.

"Finally." Chispamon said, and the room filled with light.

Rika winced at the sudden brightness, but had too many questions to shut her eyes at it. They were in a box-shaped blue room, with a flight of stairs in the center leading up the ceiling. Along one wall were a few black things, suits perhaps, of thick velvet-like fabric. Chispamon stood by the stairs, one claw still on a light switch. Renamon stood next to her, and Rika whirled around to see the other person in the room, the one she had only seen shrouded in darkness before.

Sky stood by the wall that had the black cloth things hanging on it. He was definitely not human. He looked much like a kangaroo, with a long tail and neck, supported by long nimble legs. He was wearing one of the black suits, which covered him from head to toe, leaving nothing exposed. It was a complicated thing, with numerous buckles and zippers. His large head had two large horns poking up out of the cloth, deep sooty black, and curved forward. Over his eyes, were large reflective lenses. Rika stared.

The creature laughed. "I always think it's funny that new recruits think the entire universe is populated by human beings."

"You're not a digimon?" She asked, shocked.

He shook his covered head.

"You're an alien." The girl said, a little horror flooding into her voice.

Sky laughed again. "No. I come from Earth, just like you do." He stepped up closer to her, and she didn't allow herself to flinch. "My world number is 972. It's a high energy world, where the sun is underdeveloped, by your standards, and thick brown clouds blanket the sky. We feed mostly by photosynthesis of our sun's light, what gets down to the surface. Bright light burns our skin, so we wear these lightsuits when we work in bright worlds."

Rika stared at him. After a moment's hesitation, she set a hand on his head, touching the thick fabric. It was soft. The girl ran her hands down his neck, and then back up to the horns.

"What are these for?" She asked as they swiveled.

"They help me see. We can see by either echolocation or sight. Except, Chispamon's shield blinded me temporarily." He glanced over at the electric lizard.

"Whatever." The digimon replied. "You would have been more than blind if I hadn't saved you." He turned and walked over to climb the stairs. "Come on, Rika. The transition world has defenses, but you'll be safer at MIRROR."

She looked around and then glanced at her digivice. Sure enough, it read 129. "It doesn't look like the transition world."

Sky motioned her up the stairs, so she ran up after Chispamon. He touched the ceiling and it peeled open to expose the black-blue sky of the transition world. The two of them stepped outside, followed by Renamon. Sky shut off the light and ran up the stairs after them, letting the floor peel shut again. They were on one of the blue energy platforms.

Rika turned back to the alien earthling. "I dreamt about you."

He cocked his head to the side. "Really?"

"Months ago. I thought it had nothing to do with anything, but now I think I understand. It was hinting at this."

He nodded, looking off into the distance to check for the train. "What happened?"

"Nothing bad. I just saw you, and a strange smoky meadow."

Sky twitched his long tail. "That must have been my world. Maybe you'll go there some day."

The violet eyed girl heard a whoosh behind her, and knew the train had arrived. "Where's everybody else?" She asked as she turned to board. "I thought you said the other Tamers were in danger too. Where are they?"

Chispamon stepped onto the cerulean train. "We got them out first. They're either on their way, or already safe at MIRROR."

Renamon followed him inside, and Rika did the same. She sat where she had last time, watching as the electric digimon leapt up and lounged sideways across from her. Sky stepped in and held onto one of the poles with a gloved hand, his three fingers wrapping around the pale blue metal. The girl ran a hand through her hair, and realized that she was still in her pajamas. She frowned and rubbed her eyes, hoping she didn't look too bad for being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night. Suddenly, another question came to mind.

"Sky, what am I supposed to call you?"

His tail flicked to the side as the doors snapped shut. The train took off, and Sky looked at her, the mask of his lightsuit moving slightly as his mouth did beneath it. "The humans call me a heliophobe."

Rika fell into deep thought as the train sped off toward the elevator.

**neoKOS-MOS:** Did anyone remember the dream she had at the end of WWRT? Well, anyway, I thought that was really fun. Nice fighting and interesting stuff. It was hard to make Sky seem so ethereal at times, but I think I pulled it off. Speaking of him, what do you think? I thought that perhaps it was time something really different came into the picture. But, anyway, the next chapter will be interesting. Maybe we'll meet MIRROR member number five, the last member. I'm still thinking about it.

_Dark Qiviut:_ Thanks again for all the suggestions. I still have a lot of thinking to do, but I'm getting this fleshed out. And, I know I'm working with a lot of characters here. So many. But, that's good for me. They'll get split up, and I'm using three groups now, instead of four. Too many subplots.

Review on your way out… Where is everybody?


	7. Fire and Ice

**Disclaimer:** All digimon and Pullman elements are not mine. Everything else I claim.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Wow. I've been keeping my deadlines lately. Last one was done early, and this one I finished on time. Another action chapter here. Are there too many? Well, it'll taper off soon. Just have to set everything up right. Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

**Fire and Ice**

Davis found himself sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the textbook open before him. He was supposed to be doing his homework, but there were too many distractions running through his head. He couldn't concentrate. Maybe it was brain overload.

The boy sighed and shut his math book, shoving it lightly away from him. He crossed his arms over his notebook and set his head down. So much had happened in the past two days. Right in the middle of Randy's explanation, the ambassador's digivice had started beeping, and he'd run out of the room, saying there was an emergency he had to tend to. So that had left Davis and TK to finish the story. Everyone had agreed that they were excited about going, and then they had broken up to do what they needed to.

Davis heard a key hit the doorknob and glanced over to see who was home. The door opened and Jun stepped inside. She looked around the room and then closed it behind her.

"Is mom home?" She asked.

"No."

"Is dad?"

Davis shook his head.

"Good." The older girl seemed to relax and she flopped down on the sofa. "How about your freeloader friend?"

"Shut up, Jun." He said, throwing his pencil at her. "Ken's over at Yolei's doing his homework."

She laughed. "Sure he is. He's definitely doing something."

"Shut up, Jun." He said again. "Just because you're always in bed with Mark doesn't mean Ken and Yolei are the same way."

She sat up and grinned at him. "You're so naive, Dai."

Annoyed, the boy pushed himself away from the table and went to his room. She only laughed again. Demiveemon was asleep on his bed as he closed the door, and empty bag of white bread crumpled next to the little digimon. He had stolen it from the kitchen and eaten it all in one sitting.

Davis flopped down on the floor, on top of Ken's sleeping bag. He was tired and annoyed. Jun never stopped picking at him and his friends. She was always mean to Ken, and every time Rika came over, his sister was either hostile or gone. He loved her, but she made him irritable. But that was only heightened by the fact that he was anxious as well. Anxious to get back to the digital world and do some fighting. Over everything else, he wanted to see Rika, talk with her about everything. He sighed and closed his eyes.

A cold wind blew in through the open window, rustling the curtains. Davis curled up at the chill of it. It was late spring, and should have been warm out, but the city was going through a cold spell today, with a frost warning tonight. It was strange, because it had been warm in the morning, but had dropped off to a cool 40o F by lunch.

Davis grunted and pulled himself off the floor to shut the window. Then he pulled a black hooded sweatshirt out of his drawer. The brunette blinked at it and then grinned as he remembered that it was Rika's, the one she had given him after the fight with Fauvmon. He pulled it on and sat down on his bed, no longer caring if he woke up Demiveemon. Shoving the little cynodont aside, the boy laid down and closed his eyes. He slowly drifted off into a half-sleep, mind forming dreamlike sequences from any little noise that reached his ears.

Around an hour later, Davis woke up again, shivering. It was so cold, and he had to rub his eyes to open them, eyelashes having frozen shut. He sat up and wrapped his arms around himself, watching his breath condense as he exhaled. The boy glanced at the window, but it was closed, frosted over on the outside of the glass. Whatever was making the room so cold, it wasn't coming from out there. Demiveemon had curled up next to his partner, conserving heat as he slept. Davis shook the cynodont lightly and his big brown eyes opened, staring up at him sleepily. He jumped, startled.

"There's a digimon in here." The little creature whispered.

Jun screamed, terrified and startled. Davis leapt out of bed and ripped the door open. He ran into the living room and stopped at what he saw. The entire room had been iced over. All the furniture was crystallized and shining. Icicles hung down from the ceiling, scattering light from the overhead lamps. Snow seemed to appear inches from the ice, falling to rest in a chilling white carpet. The whole room was silent with cold, the temperature well below freezing. Dai's breath was thick and white as he gasped.

In the center of it all, stood a grey-white digimon. It's back was to him, and the tattered wings were all he could see besides bound feet. The boy swallowed as he recognized it. Icedevimon turned and smiled cruelly at him. In his arms, he held Jun, who was limp and unresponsive, hints of frost on her clothes and face. Her eyes were open, staring blankly.

"Let her go." The boy shouted, his voice echoing off the smooth icy walls.

The ice digimon laughed. "Two girls are important to you. Which will you choose?"

In a swirl of frozen air, the devil left the room, moving out the door and heading downstairs. Davis jumped forward to chase him, but slipped and fell on the ice covered floor. He landed on his face in the thin layer of snow still condensing out of the air. The boy picked himself up and slid over to the door. He headed down after Icedevimon, a death grip on the railing to keep himself from falling down the icy stairs. Reaching the bottom, he fumbled at the door, wondering how the ice digimon could have gotten outside without opening it.

"Dai, wait!" Demiveemon called from the top of the staircase, trying to get down.

"Hurry!" Davis responded, too much of his panic creeping into his voice.

The little cynodont swallowed and jumped down the stairs. Davis watched as he tumbled down the ice mountain, bashing his little head a few times. The digimon hit the ground and laid still. Davis scooped him up, hugging him.

"Are you okay."

One eye opened and Demiveemon smiled. "I'll be okay. Just run. I need to save my strength to fight him."

The boy pulled the door open and ran outside. He looked both ways down the sidewalk, and saw a streak of crystal ice spread over the right wall. Breaking into a run, he followed the frost path to the corner of the street. It was warm outside, compared to the frigid temperatures of his apartment. And there were people everywhere, all looking at him strangely for carrying a little blue digimon and running around in a panic. The boy elbowed his way through a throng of people and stood on the corner, looking desperately around for any sign of Icedevimon or his sister. Nothing.

"No." He whispered, helplessness passing through his mind.

"There, Dai." Demiveemon said, pointing one of his stubby arms at a lone icicle, which was angled to direct them down the street.

The boy swallowed and broke out into a run again. He raced three blocks before the scarce ice path changed directions again. A large swath of snowy frost swept in the direction of the subway. Heart beating loud in his throat, Davis stood at the top of the stairs leading down into the train station. He sucked in a deep breath. There was yellow tape stretched across the entrance, reading, 'Construction in Progress.' He lifted the tape and stepped under it, setting Demiveemon down on the first stair.

"You can't go down there, young man." A man in a business suit said.

Davis just ignored him, and followed his digimon into the depths of the station. There were icicles hanging from the ceiling of the staircase, and he eyed them suspiciously, hoping the sharp ice shards wouldn't fall and skewer him. Ice slicked over the railings and snow had coated the steps thickly, his footsteps crunching loudly. As he descended, his breath began condensing again.

Demiveemon reached the bottom first, and scurried over to the turnstiles. Dai's feet slipped as he stepped off the stairs onto the floor. Underneath the carpet of snow, there was now a thick sheet of ice. The turnstiles were iced over as well, their three arms glinting with the imperfections in the coating. He tried to push through one, but couldn't budge the machinery. The boy knelt down, getting his knees all wet from the slowly melting ice, and crawled underneath.

He skated over the icy undercoat of the snow-strewn floor, and came to the platform. Davis stared at the big bubbles of ice separating the train track from the main floor, leaving two tunnels for trains to pass through, but no space for them to drop people off. The temperature hit subzero again, and his wet knees made him shiver. The boy searched the room for any sign of Icedevimon. There were ice sheets and icicles everywhere, snow condensing in the air and fluttering to the ground.

With a whirlwind of sharp snowflakes, the ice digimon appeared in the center of the room, still holding Jun in his cruel arms. He turned and smiled that awful smile again, lips curling up enough to show his vampiric canines. Davis swallowed at the thought of those teeth sinking into his sister's neck.

"Let her go, Icedevimon!" He demanded, stepping forward through the three-inch layer of snow.

"Of course." The ice digimon answered horribly, eyes narrowed. "But you have to do something for me."

The boy stopped and stared him down. "I'll do nothing for you."

"It's simple." The devil said, paying no notice to his defiance. "Either you give me the seer, or this girl dies." One nailed hand hovered over Jun's throat, a finger dipping to caress her jugular vein.

Davis stiffened. He hesitated. "What seer? I don't know what you mean."

The winged creature laughed, catching the lie in his voice. "She has frequented this world many times, going to your house. You can't hide the fact that you know her, child."

The boy swallowed, never taking his eyes off that one hand. Again, a nail ran itself carefully along her neck. "I don't know where she is." He whispered.

"Lies. Your soul shows it."

A swirl of icy wind grew up next to him. Within it, he caught the hint of Roxelle's shape, invisible inside the pale white of the air.

"Perhaps I could take her, instead?" The digimon sneered.

"No!" Davis responded instantly, the thought of it making his heart wrench.

Icedevimon laughed. "The seer. She will not escape me again."

"I don't know where she is." He repeated, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head. He was terrified. "She's not here."

The ice creature's eyes narrowed, and the one cold nail pressed harder on Jun's neck, springing up a trickle of blood.

"No!" Davis yelled, horrified. "I know where she is. She's in her own world. I'll take you there if you want. Just don't hurt Jun."

"She is _not_ in her own world!" The devil snapped, wings shuttering at his rage.

"She's not?" Davis gasped, shocked and frightened at the same time.

The digimon growled and threw Jun like a rag doll. Her limp form hit the frosted ice wall and she slumped in the snow, ice growing up over her arms and legs to lock her in place. The evil white creature rushed forward and slashed Davis with his icy claw. He cried out and fell, blood leaking from three long cuts on his cheek.

"Dai!" Demiveemon yelled, jumping between the enemy and his partner.

Quickly, the little cynodont digivolved to rookie, and landed a headbutt smack into Icedevimon's stomach. The taller digimon recoiled, drifting backwards to get his breath. In that second, Davis activated his digivice, letting Flamedramon appear on the battlefield.

Now, matched in level and surpassed in element, the ice devil stared down his opponent. They stood still for a moment, the horrible silence of the room screaming out the tension. Then, a frozen claw clasped itself over an icicle, breaking it off. The shard streaked through the air, striking Flamedramon in the shoulder and shattering on his armor. The fire digimon crouched lower, but then sprung forward as Icedevimon rushed to attack him. A cruel slash of icy chill ripped across red armor, tearing horrible holes in it as cold made the metal brittle.

Davis pressed a hand to his bleeding face, watching the battle fearfully. Flamedramon was supposed to have the advantage. Why was his armor tearing?

The frozen creature dug his claws into his opponent's now bare shoulders, and threw him against the wall with a powerful crash. The ice tunnel groaned, hairline fractures forming around Flamedramon as the fire digimon slid to the ground. Instantly, ice shards began spearing up out of the frozen floor, cutting deep and poking through armor. The cynodont picked himself up out of the spikes and leapt at the enemy, firing blasts of flame through the air. Snow vaporized on contact, and the fire struck Icedevimon, burning his wings and forming black streaks across his pale skin..

Even more angry than before, the frost devil raised his arms and yelled. A rain of hail and snow condensed from the air, crashing down on Flamedramon, burying the digimon and immobilizing him. Frozen claws slashed through the snow and again ripped at the cynodont's body, armor peeling off in strands of twisted metal.

Davis stood. _You have to digivolve again_. He willed. _You did it before._

"Daisuke." A voice called from behind him, deep tenor. "Tend to your sister."

The boy whirled and saw another digimon stepping down the stairs. He looked like a cougar, but was around the size of a tiger. His reddish fur was streaked through with crimson, and the tips of his ears were tufted blood red. Dark brown wings sprung from his shoulder blades, leathery and bat-like, and just large enough. A strap ran around his back, holding something in place between the wings. Mahogany eyes met his own in a glare as the cat digimon took another step down the stairs, steam rising from his feet as he melted a steady spot for his footing.

"Maumon?" The boy asked.

"Cougar, now." He replied, and leapt from the staircase to the floor, clouds of steam rising as he landed. "Go."

Davis turned and skated over to Jun's side. She blinked as he collapsed down next to her, glancing over.

"Dai, your face." She whispered hoarsely.

He touched the scratches again. "It's fine. Are you okay?"

"What happened?" She asked. "I can't remember." Her eyes closed again.

"Jun!"

"My legs and arms are numb." The older girl breathed. "And my head hurts."

He swallowed and looked at the solid ice encasing his sister's limbs. "I... Okay, hold still."

Taking his digivice, the boy bashed it down on the translucent crystal. Shavings of ice broke off, but nothing more happened. He tried a few more times, but gave up. Taking a deep helpless breath, he looked up too see what was going on in the battle. Cougarmon was crouched down on the far side of the cavern, glaring up at Icedevimon towering above him. Flamedramon was attempting to pull himself out of the snowdrift, making use of the distraction. Most of his armor had been torn off, and his cobalt skin was ripped in places, little bits of data evaporating out of the open wounds. Exhaustedly, the digimon pulled his arms out of the snow, and worked on his legs.

Cougarmon launched himself at the ice devil, his fiery hot paws searing pale skin. He sunk his teeth into Icedevimon's shoulder, yielding a scream. A grey-white hand clasped itself around the cat's head and tore him away, throwing him across the room. Neatly, the red digimon twisted himself and landed on his four feet, steam rising around his crimson body.

Rising awkwardly to stand on his two rear feet, the cougar braced himself and reached over his shoulder. The feline claw removed a bow from where it had been hidden between the two wings. He pulled back on the black weapon's bowstring as Icedevimon rushed forward to attack. A black arrow was loosed, the tip bursting into flames as it flew through the snow filled air. The shaft struck the ice digimon in the shoulder, and he tore it out, tossing it aside. Cougarmon leapt out of the way as a frozen slash clawed at him. On all fours again, he ran to the snow mountain and pulled Flamedramon out.

"Go help your friend." The cat ordered as he rose again to sink another arrow into his opponent.

The cynodont obeyed, still holding his armor form, despite the tatters the red metal was in. He knelt down exhaustedly next to Davis and looked at his partner. Then, without speaking, he held his arms above the ice encasing Jun's body. The claws trembled slightly, but slowly the ice began to melt away. As he finished, the cynodont fell back and returned to his in-training form.

"Jun, are you okay?" Davis asked as he helped her sit up.

The girl held her head and leaned against the slick wall. After a second, she nodded. Davis scooped up Demiveemon and looked back to the battle still going on.

Cougarmon once again stepped aside, just missing a direct attack by Icedevimon's wicked claws. He leapt forward and collided with the ice digimon, sending him sprawling on his back in the thick powdery snow. The cat jumped away, and turned back.

"Let's finish this." He growled, body starting to glow a dull red.

The devil raised his hands, not moving to get up, and a flood of ice and snow fell out of the air toward Cougarmon. The fire digimon raised his wings in a shield, and burned through the ice as it fell, leaving a gigantic cloud of steam to billow away. He was only visible through the fog by his reddish glow.

"Fire Tempest." He called, and another hail appeared in the air, this time directed over Icedevimon.

Lava-hot rocks struck the ice digimon, burning through his frigid body. Data dissolved away in the midst of steam as the rocks melted through the ice floor.

The cat relaxed and flapped his wings, blowing the mist away. He turned toward the two humans and trudged over. Those cold brown eyes swept over Davis and settled on Jun.

"Are you all right?" He asked, stepping forward to touch her hand with his nose.

The girl's eyes widened. "Digimon." She whispered fearfully.

"I just saved your life." The cougar told her, disgusted at her reaction. He looked over at Dai, the glare not lessening. "Come on."

The digimon turned to the exit. The boy scrambled up to follow, helping Jun to her wobbly feet. "Wait." He called, as he saw the cat already at the turnstiles.

Cougarmon stopped, resettling his wings as he waited impatiently for the two humans to catch up. Davis carefully maneuvered his sister over one of the ice covered turnstiles. On the other side, he started up the stairs, walking in the holes the cat digimon's feet had melted in the snow. The fire cougar leapt over the metal objects and ran up after the two of them. Outside, in plain sight of everyone, he stepped out onto the sidewalk. A woman screamed, and people ran from the roped-off subway entrance. Davis helped Jun under the yellow tape and looked down at Adara's digimon.

"Aren't you supposed to keep a low profile?" He asked.

The cat rolled his eyes. "What does it matter. Their world is going to be invaded soon enough.

"This is my world too." Davis said, a little offended. "Will they be okay?"

"Sure."

Cougarmon stepped forward, walking down the sidewalk. The gogglehead helped his sister after the digimon.

"He was looking for Rika." He called.

"Of course he was looking for Rika. Do you know how useful a seer would be to Hieldramon? He'd gain a lot of standing in his Master's eyes if he could deliver her to him."

"You knew about this?" Davis demanded, stepping up his pace to catch up with the cat. "Where is she?"

"She's safe. Don't worry. And your world and friends will be safe too, once we get you to MIRROR. Hieldramon won't send any more minions if he can't be guaranteed his seer."

Cougarmon turned into an alley and stopped. He waited for the humans to reach his spot.

"Cut into the transition world." He told Davis roughly. "129."

"I know." The boy muttered as he pulled out his digivice.

He plugged the number into the direction and the blue plasma knife erupted from the antenna. Slicing a hole in the air, the boy went back to help his sister through. Cougarmon leapt onto the blue energy platform and sat watching Davis as he sealed the window back up again.

"Dai, what is this place?" Jun asked in horrified wonder as she stood, legs finally thawed out enough to stand on her own.

"Long story." He told her as the train pulled up in a rush of misty wind.

**neoKOS-MOS:** So, we got nowhere, but it was fun. Next chapter something will actually happen. I thought I had to get Jun back in there, since she was such an important story element last time. And I'm sorry, but I couldn't work in my other MIRROR member. She didn't fit anywhere. Next time.

_Dark Qiviut:_ Glad you thought it was interesting. I was hoping Sky wouldn't scare anyone off. I'm a big sci-fi fan, but I know everyone isn't. He's not all that strange. We hear about another of the villains here. One more.

_Thanks for reading, and please review._


	8. Preparations

**Disclaimer:** Digimon and Pullman's cutting ideas are not mine. Sky and the character introduced at the end, however, are. As well as some other stuff that I'm not as concerned about.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Well, this one took me a lot longer to finish up. The school year was ending, and I got depressed because I'm a senior. I decided I didn't want to impart that feeling into this story, so I was working on another one in the mean time. Finally got over that to present this to you. It's a little strange, especially the end, but it gets through a lot. 4400 words. I'm getting better at writing longer stuff. Yay!

Read and enjoy!

**Preparations**

Rika sat at one of the consoles, safe at MIRROR. She was watching the screen intently, body tensed. Up there, in black-and-white, Davis stepped through the window and sealed it up again. She let out a tiny sigh, and continued staring at the picture of the empty alley. Until something large and white washed over the screen for a moment, a rush of grayish energy racing toward her. The image flicked black, empty and silent. The girl swallowed and glanced over next to her where Adara was watching another scene.

"What happened?"

The older girl looked over, eyes fixing on the black square. "The camera portal must have closed up. Did something look at it or something?"

Rika nodded. "Yeah. Something big and white attacked it."

Adara's fingers flew over the touchscreen before her, making note. "It must have been Hieldramon. He's not happy, and he knows we're to blame for him loosing you."

The violet eyed girl looked down at her hands, clasped together in her lap. "I wish I wasn't so important."

Adara smiled, and reached a hand over. She set it on Rika's arm sympathetically. "It'll be okay."

She nodded and stood up, walking over across the room to where the rest of her friends were sitting on the floor. Sinking down next to Henry, Rika wrapped her arms around her legs and watched Suzie, Ai, and Mako play together in the middle of the circle. The other two young Tamers had been there when she'd arrived, looking rather scared. She hoped they hadn't been attacked as fiercely as she had, with only Impmon to protect them. Takato was wearing one of Randy's shirts, his own having been shredded as he and Guilmon fought to protect Jeri from a troop of Bakemon. The other girl hugged her little digimon and held on to the gogglehead's hand, a spooked look still in her eyes.

Kazu was asleep on the floor, curled up and snoring. He hadn't seen any action. Adara had gotten him out before they were attacked by any of Nerezzamon's minions. Kenta, on the other hand, was sitting over by Takato. He kept running his hand down Marineangemon's back, squinting at the broken glasses lying on the floor before him. Luckily for the two of them, the little digimon was a mega level, and had been able to protect them before Nora showed up with Delphiniumon to get them out of a pack of twelve Darktyrannomon.

Henry looked over at her and gave her a little smile. "You okay?"

Rika nodded, blowing hair out of her face. She looked away from him, chewing the inside of her lip. It was a lie. She was not okay. She was feeling guilty, because she had started this. If she had been more foresighted, maybe she would have seen the attack beforehand. That would have adverted this horrible night.

"Hey," the dark haired boy whispered. "Can we talk?"

She looked over at him again. Something in his voice was confused and worried. "Sure."

The two of them stood and walked over to the other side of the room. A few yards away, Sky sat at one of the consoles, his big suited head staring up at one of the screens. The back of the chair had been pushed down so he could sit comfortably. Henry eyed the heliophobe as they settled themselves at the big wooden desk. Rika snapped her fingers in front of his face and his eyes came back to her. The girl blinked at him.

He ran a hand through his hair before speaking. "Have you seen anything lately?"

"In the area of...?" She waited for him to finish the sentence.

"Okay." The boy licked his lips and glanced over at the circle of Tamers across the room. "I didn't tell anyone what happened before Randy got me and Suzie to the transition world. They only know what she told them, and you know how she gets carried away with her stories."

Rika nodded. "So what really happened, and why is it a secret?"

"Terriermon woke me up in the middle of the night because he felt someone outside. I looked out the window and couldn't see anyone. But that's when the Blackagumon broke down our door. There were so many of them. I hope my parents are okay." His eyes fell to the table for a second.

"But, anyway, I got Suzie outside and we ran down the street. Then, Terriermon told me that he felt someone again. When we were running through the streets, I thought I saw Alice."

"Alice?" Rika blinked. "But she disappeared a long time ago."

"I know. That's why I wanted to know if you've seen anything about her lately."

The redhead shook her head. "Nothing. If it was her, I hope she's okay."

Henry nodded. "Yeah. Ryo too, though he's been in the digital world since he left a year ago. Hopefully he hasn't been pulled into this whole plot."

The girl sighed and set her head down. A second later, there were footsteps across the room, coming from the elevator. She looked up and watched as Davis walked in, helping his sister.

"Davis!" She sprang out of her seat and ran across the room, throwing herself at him in a hug.

He smiled and held her close. "Hey." He breathed into her ear.

"I'm sorry." She pulled back a little.

"For what?"

"I watched you get attacked." She whispered, adverting her eyes.

"Oh." He sighed and lifted her chin so she had to look at him. "If wasn't your fault. You couldn't help that you can see."

"I know, but..."

"It's okay, Rika." He said, hugging her against himself again.

They broke apart, and Davis went to help his sister sit at the big desk. Rika found the other Tamers staring at her in confusion, she rolled her eyes and waved a hand at them, going over to kick Kazu awake.

"Cougar." Adara said firmly. "I told you to be nice."

"I was." The cat muttered, and trudged across the room, collapsing next to Chispamon.

The dark haired girl shook her head and came over to sit in the circle of Tamers. She waved Henry and Davis over as well, and the two of them came to sit down, Jun tagging along. The older gogglehead pointedly walked through the circle and seated himself next to Rika, ignoring the looks he got from the others. The girl elbowed him in the ribs to get him to stop grinning and then waited for Adara to begin.

She folded her silver ringed fingers in her lap. "Okay. First off, we're sorry to those of you who were attacked. We would have gotten you out before anything happened, but our intelligence wasn't alerted until Nerezzamon and Hieldramon started dissolving into your worlds."

"What about our families?" Takato asked.

"Yeah. And the other digidestined." Davis added.

Adara nodded to each of them. "They will be okay. Nerezzamon and Hieldramon are not ready to take your worlds yet. They aren't strong enough. The only reason they attempted to infiltrate them was because they wanted something."

"Me." Rika whispered, again staring down at her hands.

"Yeah. They wanted a seer, because you would be extremely useful to their Master."

"We won't let them get you, Rika." Suzie said, coming over and sitting herself in the redhead's lap. Rika smiled and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl.

Henry spoke up. "These two digimon, are they the commanders for this entity in the Core?"

Adara nodded. "Yes. They're two of the ones we want you guys to help us take out. Hieldramon is an ice dragon, very powerful and capable of a lot of damage. He's been gathering ice digimon to help him with his assignments. And Nerezzamon is a darkness type. We've never actually seen him, since the only time I've spoken with him was when he was hiding in shadow."

"You've spoken with them?" Takato demanded. "I thought they were evil."

"They are." The girl replied. "But we fight them all the same. They have a respect for MIRROR because, despite all the times they've tried, they can't wipe us out."

"Hey, Adara?" Sky called from across the room.

She looked over at him, and he turned his long neck to do the same.

"Can I help?" He asked.

She smiled, almost laughing. "Sure."

The heliophobe shut down his screen and came over, laying neatly next to the dark haired girl, his neck lifted in a swan curve so his head was almost level with the humans.

"Anyway," Adara said, "the third digimon we'll be fighting is Zeismon. He's not the fastest or the most cruel, but he has a lot of raw power. He's a warrior who's been around in the Core for a long time, and he's very dangerous."

"Okay, I have a question." Henry said, rubbing his eyes. "When exactly are we gonna go to the Core and fight these guys? And why do you need so many of us?"

Sky looked up at Adara, and the girl nodded. He took the question. "Well, these digimon are a lot stronger than anything you've fought before. The strongest you've fought is mega level. Except you, Davis."

"What?" The older gogglehead was confused.

"Malomyotismon. He was supreme level."

"But, my digivice said he was mega."

"Most digivices don't pick up on levels higher than mega. We'll update yours so you guys can see the last three."

Jeri looked surprised. "There's three more levels?"

Sky nodded. "Yeah. Supreme, tera, and omega. But don't worry. Zeismon, Hieldramon, and Nerezzamon are only tera level. Omega is way too strong for our team to take on."

"Why?" Kenta asked, smoothing the wrinkles on his pants.

Adara smiled, eyes cast at the floor. "Well, our digimon haven't really digivolved past supreme. Only Cougar's been to tera, and he couldn't hold it for long."

"So you're sending us to defeat these guys because you can't do it yourself?" Henry looked disappointed.

"No, We can defeat them on our own. We're just asking you to help us so we can do it all at once, instead of one at a time."

"It's okay if you don't want to come, Henry." Sky said, smile in his young voice.

The dark haired boy frowned. "No, that's not what I meant. It's just, you guys seem all-powerful."

Adara laughed. "No. We're not. But MIRROR as a whole might be. But, back to your original question, we'd like to leave as soon as possible. If we get these guys out of the way before the synchronization, we won't have to worry about them invading innocent worlds."

"So, what? Are we talking today? In a week?" Henry started cracking his knuckles.

Sky's tail flicked before he went on. "Tomorrow. We'll pull the other digidestined out of your world, Davis, and then we can be off. Of course, you'll probably want to pack some stuff, since we'll be walking through the Core most of the time."

They all blinked. Jeri chewed her fingernail. "But are you sure we're ready?"

The two MIRROR members nodded.

The Tamers looked around at each other, hesitant now that they had been directly assaulted. Takato broke out in a grin.

"Cool. Let's go get our stuff."

The group seemed to lighten up. If their leader was ready, so were they.

"Okay." Adara said, standing up. "I'll take Kazu, Kenta, and Jeri." She looked over her shoulder to the computers. "Hey, Randy, you think you can take Henry and Suzie to get some stuff?"

"Sure." He called, not even looking up from the screen he was watching. "Just a minute."

Nora walked over from where she had been working at the desk. "I'll take Takato, Ai, and Mako. Sky, you take Rika, Davis, and Jun. After you all get your stuff, we'll go to get the rest of the digidestined."

"Cool." Sky said, standing up. "Come on guys."

It was an abrupt ending, but Rika stood and followed the heliophobe back to the elevator room, Davis and Jun doing the same. She watched as the alien pulled out his digivice, one much like Nora's, but gray, with a black textured pattern covering the sides. He pressed a button and the antenna didn't erupt with any light, but the same sound of the cutting blade forming came from it.

"Why doesn't it light up?" Rika asked him as he cut a window.

"Because if it did, I wouldn't have kept it after I got it. The light would have burned me, and I wouldn't have liked that. So, this kind is special because they're only used by heliophobes."

A shrill whistle sounded behind them. "Sky, wait."

A snakelike digimon zipped through the air and landed on the heliophobe's velvet covered back. She was an iridescent color, skin shifting from red to green to yellow to blue as she moved. Her triangular head had big bright eyes that glanced over the humans behind her partner. She had two translucent wings that also shifted color, and her skin was covered with odd angular scales that made her look rough to the touch.

"Hey, when did you get back?" He asked.

"A few minutes ago. Chispamon was debriefing me. Where are we going?"

Sky's voice smiled and he sliced a window in the air. "To get some stuff."

They all stepped through and he sealed the rip up again. He led them onto the elevator before introducing his digimon.

"This is Refletamon. She's been searching the digital world for the past few weeks, serving as intelligence for MIRROR."

"Hi!" The little snake said, grinning as waving her long wings, tail wrapped around the base of Sky's neck to keep her balance.

"Um, excuse me..." Jun stared at the alien and his digimon. "Do you mean that you're not a digimon?"

The heliophobe sighed, tail twitching, and shook his head. Before Jun could freak out, he explained what he really was.

-

They cut into Rika's world first. Sky was the first one out into the darkness, Refletamon just as alert as he was. There was nothing waiting for them on the other side, so the three humans stepped through as well, Renamon with them.

"Come on." Sky whispered, running off down the street.

Rika led them on, following the ghost form of the heliophobe as he ran between shadows. It was lighter now than it had been when they had escaped, and they were at the outskirts of the city, closer to her house. She could see the street lights on in the city, and the light made her feel more safe. Soon they came to her house, and she stepped through the yard to her room, leading Jun and Davis after her. Sky sat lounging on the porch as she went inside, his echolocation horns slowly scanning the area.

The other two followed her inside as she slid the door open. Rika grabbed her bookbag and dumped all her school supplies out on the floor, bringing it over to her dresser and putting stuff inside.

"Davis, go grab me some stuff from the bathroom."

"Um," the boy hesitated. "Like what?"

"Torey will go with you." She told him, taking a pair of jeans and some socks.

As soon as he left the room, she slipped out of her pajamas and changed into some normal clothes.

"Hey, Rika?" Jun asked quietly.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you. I didn't know you had a digimon and everything."

"That shouldn't be the reason you're nice to me." The redhead answered, pulling a tank top over her head.

"I know. I just..." The older girl was quiet for a moment. "I just wasn't comfortable having Davis be so happy."

Rika paused in pulling on her socks and looked up at Jun. "What?"

She shrugged, looking away. "I didn't want him to be, since I wasn't."

The violet eyed girl sighed and finished getting dressed. "I guess that makes sense. But, Jun, you don't have to do that anymore. Davis's been really worried about you."

"He shouldn't be. I'm fine."

"Yeah?" Rika stood up and walked over to her. "Are you happy with all the bad stuff you've been going through? Are you happy with Mark?"

Jun bit her lip and looked away. "Don't tell Davis."

"He already knows. He just wants you to be happy again."

"But I don't know how to..."

"Quiet." The younger girl said, glancing at the door. "He's coming back. We'll talk later."

Rika busied herself in finishing up packing as Davis walked in the door again. He handed her the stuff Torey had told him to grab and she shoved it onto her bookbag along with her clothes. Finally, taking a blanket from her bed, the girl led them out the door and back into the dark air.

"Ready?" Sky asked, standing up and looking at them.

She nodded and he pulled out his digivice. Cutting through into Davis's world, they stepped through into a chilly temperature, the sun still out in the late afternoon. It was cold, though not enough for snow. The two siblings looked at each other, and Jun wrapped her arms around herself. The heliophobe ran to the shadows, and Rika followed as Davis led them to his house. Renamon traced after, leading Sky along in he got lost trailing them.

Once they got to the door to their apartment, Davis pulled the door open and stepped inside, looking up the ice coated stairs.

"I don't know how we're gonna get up there, with all the ice. It was hard enough getting down."

"How did that happen?" Jun asked, confused.

He opened his mouth to answer, but then just shook his head. Sky shot in the door after them and pressed his hands against it, pushing it closed. Renamon appeared next to her partner.

"Whoa." The heliophobe whispered, seeing the ice waterfall covering the staircase. "Refletamon, you wanna place a forcefield over us and the stairs?"

The snakelike digimon flapped her translucent wings and rose into the air. A pale white light seemed to envelop them, as well as outline everything underneath the ice coating. Sky pulled out his digivice and sliced a small hole. The air in the room rushed at the tiny window, making it's way through and leaving a close vacuum behind. Slowly, the ice began to vaporize in the airless room, until it had all disappeared into the rip. The heliophobe sealed it back up again and made another cut, causing a rush of air into the room, until that too had equalized. Refletamon let down her forcefield and rested on Sky's back.

"Wow." Davis whispered, before running up the wooden stairs.

Rika followed slowly. The new air smelled different, almost flowery, though it also had a metallic smell to it. She looked at Sky. "How did you do that?"

He shrugged, a strange gesture on his non human features. "Ice vaporizes in low pressures. I opened a window to a world where Earth never developed, empty space, and sucked it all out."

She blinked. "Hmm. Cool."

Upstairs, the entire apartment was cleared of ice as well. Davis had disappeared into his room, and Jun was standing in the living room, looking around. Sky walked up to her.

"Jun," he whispered, "what do you want to do?"

She looked down at him, almost as if she was used to how strange he looked. "What do you mean?"

"Do you wanna stay here, with Hieldramon still poking around in this world, or do you wanna come with us, into the Core, and get involved in all the fighting?"

The older girl sighed, eyes going vacant for a moment. "I'll go get my stuff." She moved off to her own room.

The heliophobe flicked his tail, a motion Rika took to be a smile, and stretched. He looked over at her.

"Are you still blind?" The redhead asked, stepping up next to him.

He shook his head. "I can see a little, though it's kinda blurry. All the light in this world helps."

"Sky," she hesitated, unsure of what to say. "Adara said there were five of you on the team. Is the last member a heliophobe too?"

His tail flicked again, and a smile had touched his voice as he answered her. "No. Wivrig isn't a heliophobe. She's something different, even more so than me. Actually, you'll get to meet her momentarily. She asked me to pick her and Ivosmon up after we're done here." He showed her a message written in a strange scratchy language that was displayed on his digivice.

Rika sat on the arm of the sofa and watched the heliophobe for a second. He was strange as it was. What could this other person look like? A fish? A monster? A blob? She shook her head and collapsed back on the couch. She could feel Sky watching her, and Renamon watching him. Everything had changed in two short days. She was feeling a little overwhelmed.

Davis came out with his bookbag stuffed with clothes and everything he needed. The boy set the bag down and sat next to Rika, looping an arm around her waist.

"This was all coated in four inches of ice when I left."

She nodded. "I saw you leave."

He sighed and closed his eyes. "Jun's coming with."

"Is that okay?"

He nodded. "I guess. At least then I won't have to worry about her."

Rika leaned her head on his shoulder, tired. After a while, Jun came back into the living room carrying her old bookbag and a blanket.

"I'm ready." She said, mostly to Sky.

"Okay." He said, fiddling with his digivice once again. "We're kinda high here, but it'll be fine."

The heliophobe cut another window in the air and peeked through. He shrugged and jumped into it, falling down. Rika got up and looked through as well. Sky stood below, almost six feet below, peering back up at her. He waved her to jump, so she did, landing pretty heavily. She got out of the way as Davis and Jun did the same, Renamon landing next to them. Sky handed his digivice to Refletamon, and the little snake flew up to close the rip up again.

"All right," he said, leading them through the tall green trees that were growing in the area. "Let's go."

"Where are we?" Davis asked, looking back at the tall gray cliff they had jumped out of.

"We're in an uninhabited world. The last member of our team, Wivrig, asked me to come get her."

"Is she close?" Rika questioned, staring up through the tops of the leafless trees at the gray sky.

"Yeah. We'll be there soon. Just watch your step." He warned, jumping over a log.

They walked over the uneven path for a while, feeling the strangeness of the world. It was cold and smelled of fire, even though there was no sign of smoke anywhere. Occasionally, Rika would catch sight of some odd creatures through the trees, most of them snakelike with too many legs. A loud menacing screech sounded near them and she rushed forward and thrust her hand into Davis's. He looked at her and smiled.

Eventually, they came to a clearing in the towering gray trees. Short blue-green grass poked up between the pebbles strewn over the ground, and a small wooden shed sat in the middle of it all. Outside, next to the low door, lay a small digimon. It was umber brown in color, and looked like a fox, with a long vulpine head and furry tail. A smile lit up it's face, and it stood to run over to them. That was when Rika noticed that it had eight short spider-like legs, each a deep brown color.

"Hey, Sky." The little creature said, scurrying over the pebble-strewn ground. She stopped just in front of him, peering up at him.

"Hi, Ivosmon. Is Wivrig ready, or are we gonna have to wait and make Adara impatient?"

"I'm ready." Called a low female voice from the shed.

After a moment, she walked out, fitting neatly through the low door. She was an earthy green color, and looked a lot like a bulldog. Her body was thick and muscular, and her feet ended in clawless frog-like feet. Her head was large and round, with two big ears poking up. The face was eyeless, mouth closed with two sharp teeth poking through the lips on either side. Her tail, which was long and thin, arched above her back, supporting a large, softball sized eye on it's end. The big brown eye blinked at them as she came forward to meet the group.

"Hi. I'm Wivrig. Pleased to meet all of you."

Rika stared. She hadn't been prepared for this. "You're so..."

"Alien? Yes, I know. But to me, you're the strange ones. On my world, you'd never see an animal with two eyes, much less ones inside their heads."

"Wivrig'll explain everything to you guys later. Right now we should get back to MIRROR." Sky glanced over the human's surprised expressions before letting his sight rest on the other alien's eye. "You wanna lead the way to the closest exit."

The eye bobbed an affirmative and she ran off into the trees again, following a sort of path. Ivosmon scurried after her partner and Sky stepped down the path first, leading the others along. They came to a stop as Wivrig sat back on her haunches, pulling her own red and brown digivice from her chestcoat. She sliced a large window in the air and ushered the others through onto the blue energy platform of the transition world. She jumped through and closed it up again.

"So, what exactly are you?" Rika asked, walking right up to the alien.

She smiled, something that was strangely visible in the eye itself. "I'm a katrant. We come from a high energy world, number 784. Grasses grow all over the planet, and we have to see over them or through them. I have a heatsense as well, so I can do both, though we use our eyes much more."

The redhead walked a slow circle around the other creature, taking in the strangeness as the large eye followed her all 360 degrees. After a moment, she stepped back and nodded. Maybe it was seer genes, but she was fine with this alien person. Looking over at Davis and Jun, she could see that they still had some getting used to to do; both looking fully creeped out. Rika smiled at them as the train pulled up, knowing they'd be okay.

-

**neoKOS-MOS:** Okay. There's my fifth and last member. Now, I have a question. Are these alien characters interesting, or should I lay off them for a while? But, anyway, I hope it was a good chapter. Took me a lot of thinking and time drawing out my new digimon before I could get it right. As well as teaching me that I should never write to rap music. Doesn't make it easier.

_Dark Qiviut:_ Thanks for the kind words. I've been trying to keep it original without going over the edge. And thank you for all the help you've been giving me.

_SalimaLiAkiyama:_ Hey there new reviewer. Glad you like it. Have you read the prequel? Just a question. No pressure to go read it if you don't have the time. And I finally reinserted the other Tamers that I'd been leaving out. Or at least gave them a mention.

_**Thanks everyone for reading. Now, please review.**_


	9. Gathering Forces

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon or any of Pullman's ideas. I also do not own Descent, except for the copies of one and three in my basement.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Sorry this one took me so long. I have been getting really lazy on this story. Next one will be better and longer, I promise.

**Gathering Forces**

They'd stashed all their bookbags and stuff at MIRROR, over in the corner of the big room where they wouldn't be tripped over. Wivrig got more stares than Sky had after the rest of the Tamers saw her, but she soon retreated to the other half of the base. The katrant went through the door in the wall with the covered windows. On the way back, Sky had explained to Davis, Rika, and Jun that the room was a darkroom, one much half of the base they were familiar with, but lightless so Sky wouldn't have to wear his lightsuit all the time. Wivrig, with her heatsense, was able to get along just fine in the darkness, so she spent a lot of time over there as well.

Davis sat in one of the chairs at the desk, blankly watching the others in the room. He didn't know what he was feeling at the moment. Of course, he was happy that Jun wouldn't be getting into anything worse while he was gone, since she'd be with them in the Core. But he didn't exactly want her there all the time. The digital world was his place. His sister didn't go there. It was almost an intrusion on something he had that was special.

He shrugged to himself and looked across the room. Rika was off talking with Henry. He felt kind of butted out of that conversation. He had been talking with his girlfriend, and the dark haired boy had come over, asking to speak with her alone. He'd shrugged it off, but now couldn't help feeling a little jealous.

"You okay, Davis?" Randy asked, coming over and sitting himself down on the desk next to the gogglehead.

"Yeah. Just kinda impatient."

The older boy nodded, looking over at his digimon. "Do you wanna come with us to get some of the other kids from your world?"

Davis glanced up at him. "Sure. Why?"

Randy shrugged. "Just thought you'd like to come. All the Tamers are here, and you look kinda left out."

"I'm not..."

"I know, but they've know each other for a lot longer than you've known them." He pushed himself off the top of the desk and started over to Chispamon. "Come on."

Davis got up as well and went over to get Demiveemon, rescue him from the clutches of Suzie and her little friends. The blue cynodont waved good-bye to them as he was carried off my his partner.

"So they didn't torture you too much?"

The digimon grinned. "They're not too bad, Davis. Suzie was really nice."

The boy shrugged and walked over to meet Randy at the elevator room. They went through and he motioned for Davis to cut the window. Hesitantly, he pulled out his digivice and activated the plasma knife. They stepped out onto the invisible platform, Chispamon following, and he closed it up again.

"So, I've been wondering," Davis said on the way down, "There are three of these digimon. How are you gonna split us up?"

Randy smiled. "Yeah. We've been thinking about that. Since Hieldramon is an ice type, we'll want more fire type digimon fighting him. Nerezzamon will be faced with the light types, and I guess Zeismon gets the left overs."

The younger boy frowned. "That's not the best way of putting it."

He shrugged. "Yeah, I know, but that's the basic plan. Adara wants you fighting Hieldramon, since you have Flamedramon."

"What about Rika?"

Randy grinned at him. "You like her, don't you?"

"I..." Davis sputtered. "Well, we are dating. But don't..."

"I can tell that no one knows yet. But don't worry. She'll be fighting Hieldramon too."

The cinnamon haired boy nodded, feeling a little better that he'd be able to protect her if they got into any big jams.

"I'm just depressed because I'll be up against Nerezzamon." Randy said, slipping his hands into his pockets and looking down at Chispamon.

"It's not my fault I'm electric." The chameleon muttered.

"Yeah, I know. I just wish he wasn't hiding in the biggest, darkest cave in all of the Core. It's gonna take us forever and a day to find him."

They rode the train for a while, and then cut into Davis's world. It was dark out now, past sundown. Chispamon reverted to his champion form of Tolamon, a small, electric yellow lizard-like digimon with deep black wings and scarlet feet. Randy stuffed him into a bookbag, and they walked the block to Tai's house.

Davis climbed the stairs slightly behind the older boy, feeling a little odd. He hadn't been in Kari's house in a long time, had been too afraid to be here. And now they were going to be right in the middle of her home. The boy was a little nervous, but he pushed that aside as Randy knocked on the door.

Tai's mom answered the knock, peeking out through the opening between the door and chain. She looked confused at seeing Randy, but at the sight of Davis, called over her shoulder for her children.

"Tai. Kari. Davis's here." She shut the door again and pulled the chain back, opening it all the way to allow them inside. "And who are you?" She asked Randy.

"Randy Trudeau." He answered, holding out a hand to her. "I'm a friend of Tai's. We have Bio together."

"Well, pleased to meet you. Do you boys want anything to drink or eat. I'm baking cookies, and they should be done in a few minutes."

"Um, no, that's okay." The light haired boy said, wisely. "I just ate, and Davis's not feeling too hot right now."

"Oh, do you want something. I know a great natural cure for indigestion."

"No. I'll be okay, Mrs. Kamiya." Davis edged away from her a little.

"Oh. Hey, Randy. Davis." Tai said as he came into the room. He waved them into his room.

The two of them made their way into the room, leaving the woman to her demented cooking. Tai shut the door behind them as Randy let Tolamon out of his bookbag.

"What's up? Are we leaving already?" The older gogglehead sat on the lower half of the bunk bed.

Randy nodded. "Yeah. The Tamer's world has already been attacked. They were looking for Rika, but we got them out before anything ugly happened."

"Why were they looking for Rika?"

"Some crazy plot or something." Davis cut in, glancing over at the ambassador a little desperately.

"Yeah." He said, shrugging it off nonchalantly. "Their world is okay, but we'd like to get you guys safe before they try something like that here."

"Okay. Do you want me to call everybody?"

"Sure," he muttered, fingering one of Kari's pink markers on the table. "But tell them to stay put. We're gonna be coming to get them soon enough."

Tai nodded, standing up again. "You wanna come with? Give them the details?"

"Yeah." Randy tossed the marker at the container full of various other colors.

The older gogglehead led the way out of the room. In an after thought, he looked back down the hall before turning to Davis.

"Hey, Davis. Would you go tell Kari to get her stuff together. She's on the computer in my dad's office."

"Sure." The boy responded, turning down toward the door Tai had indicated.

The other two went into the kitchen to use the phone. Davis set a hand on the door, hesitating for a moment. He wasn't supposed to feel strange about this. It had been two months since he'd given up his crush on Kari.

"Now what?" He heard her ask from inside the room.

Confused, the boy pushed the door open.

"You have to use the card to open the red door. You should save it again before you fight the boss."

Kari was sitting in front of the computer, tensed and leaning forward as she peered at the screen. Sitting in a chair he had pulled up next hers, Izzy was watching the screen as well. The girl did something and the computer threw a rainbow of dark colors across the monitor, configuring them into a magma pit filled with flying green orbs.

"Izzy." Davis stuttered, "Tai didn't say you were here."

"Yeah, well, I didn't know you were coming over either." He replied, not looking up as Kari dodged the barrage of chartreuse projectiles and unleashed three missiles, charging up to follow those with two huge purple energy blasts.

"What are you playing?" The gogglehead asked, coming over and looking over Kari's shoulder.

"Descent." She responded absently. "I always die in this level."

A big brown ship appeared out of nowhere and unleashed six rockets at once. The short haired girl jerked the mouse to the right, dodging all but one of them. Quickly, she ducked into a hole in the wall and waited as a door closed behind her. With a sigh, she hit a key to pause the game and sat up, looking at Davis.

"Hey. Why are you here, anyway?"

"Um," he blinked and then shrugged. "I'm helping Randy. The Tamers world was attacked today, and now he wants to pull us out of our world in case the same thing happens."

"Are they okay?" Izzy asked, looking up as well.

Davis nodded. "Yeah. They're fine. Everybody got out before anything too bad happened. But, still, I think we should do this."

Kari nodded too, glancing at the computer screen for a moment. "So, am I supposed to get some of my stuff together, or something?"

"That's the plan."

She shrugged and stood up. "Save it for me." She told Izzy before walking out of the room to go pack.

The older boy shifted over to her seat and started the game up again. He flew out of the door she had just entered and launched a stream of blue lasers at a smaller enemy. Dodging a big gray missile, he launched one of his own off and grinned as it destroyed the other ship. Quickly, he ducked back into the hole and saved it. Exiting the game, he set the computer to shut down and got up.

"I guess I should go home and get some of my stuff together. Is Randy here?"

Davis nodded. "He's in the kitchen making calls with Tai."

Izzy stretched as he walked out the door, going off to talk to the ambassador before he left for his own house. Davis followed, watching as he peeking in Kari's door and saying bye before going to the kitchen. The gogglehead sighed and stopped in the girl's doorway, watching the apparently empty room.

"Hey, Kari. Can I come in?"

She appeared out from underneath the bed and looked at him strangely. "What? You just saw me. It's not like I'm naked or anything. Of course you can come in."

Blushing slightly, he stepped inside and watched as she disappeared under the bed again. "What are you looking for?"

"Tai's old soccer bag. It'll be easier to carry in the digital world."

A soccer ball rolled out from underneath the mattress, followed by an old grass-stained cleat. Slowly, the girl backed out from under the bed and sat down, dusting off a wrinkled green gym bag.

"There." She whispered to herself, standing up and setting it on the bed. She opened it up and went over to the dresser to pull out some clothes. "So, what happened to the Tamers, Davis?"

"Um," he walked over and sat down next to the bag, watching her. "They were attacked by darkness type digimon in the middle of the night. Some of them were fine, but others had to really fight their way out of it."

"Is Jeri okay?" Kari glanced over her shoulder, looking worried. "She only has Katzemon."

"Yeah, she's fine. Takato ran over to her place and held off the worst of the Bakemon."

"That's good." She mumbled, walking over and stuffing some clothes into the bag. Davis saw a lot of pink, but noticed the variation in the colors as well.

"You've been wearing less pink since you started going out with Izzy." He responded absently.

She blinked, and looked over the choice of clothing. "I guess so. I didn't really notice. I figure one of us should wear something other than one color."

Davis couldn't help smiling. "Yeah." Ever since Izzy had started college a few years ago, he had taken to wearing all black. Something about Chaos Theory and expressing control over a chaotic environment. Yolei always chided him about it.

"You know, Davis, you've taken to the idea really well." She stuffed some socks down next to her clothes. "I was afraid you'd hate me for a while, because I chose to go out with him before you."

"Well, I..." The boy paused, feeling himself blush. "I could never hate you, Kari."

She smiled, looking down at him. "I'm glad. But, still. You adapted better than I though you would."

"Well, I'm more resilient than you think."

She grinned at him before going back to get more clothes.

Davis rolled his eyes and flopped down on the bed, smiling despite himself. He stared at the interlacing of metal mesh that held up the bed above. She had woven pink and red pipe cleaners into a heart, surrounded by fuzzy yellow flowers.

"You know, for a while, I wondered if you had found another girl."

The boy stiffened a little, not knowing what to say. "Well, I..."

"Did you, Davis?" The girl came bounding across the room to jump down on the bed next to him. Kneeling over him, she peered down into his face, making him even more uncomfortable. "Did you?"

After a moment, he rolled away to show her his back. "Leave me alone, Kari." He said through clenched teeth, unable to hold back the grin.

"Oh! Who is it Davis? I bet it's Miyuki from your History class."

"What?" He sat up and looked at her. "What would give you that idea?"

Kari frowned, looking away. "Drat. I was sure. Now I'm out three bucks to Yolei."

"What? You're betting on my love life?" He was a little exasperated, but not really mad.

She grinned at him. "Well, you were the only one left who hadn't hooked up with someone."

"Tai doesn't have a girlfriend."

"Tai doesn't need a girlfriend right now, since he's married to his job, soccer team, and school work." The older gogglehead walked into the room and went in search of his other gym bag.

Kari giggled and started packing again. A few minutes later, the three of them walked out of the room and into the kitchen. Tolamon peeked out at them from Randy's bookbag on the table. Tai went over and picked the bag up, shifting it to his shoulder before heading to the door.

"We're gonna go now, mom."

"Where are you going?" She called from the kitchen, moving into the doorway to see where her children were.

"Remember the camping trip I told you about?" The older boy responded, turning back. "We'll only be gone for a week."

"But you still have school."

"It's a classroom thing we're sponsoring for Kari's school. We're taking them out for a week as a learning experience. You signed the papers for both of us."

The woman looked confused. "I don't remember any of this, Tai."

"Maybe it was dad I talked to." Kari added, folding her hands behind her back.

Dusting flour off her hands, she came over and kissed both of them. "Well, have fun. I'll miss you guys."

Tai blushed slightly as she pulled away. "All right, mom. We'll see you later."

Out in the hall, after the door had closed, Davis let the grin spread across his face. "Wow. Was that for real?"

"No." The older boy let out a sigh. "I'm just glad she bought it. Thanks for jumping in there, Kari."

His sister nodded. "But I thought Randy was here. Where did he go?"

"He went with Izzy to get his stuff. That's why he left Tolamon."

The little yellow lizard peeked his head out of the bookbag and grinned at them over Tai's shoulder "I can find us the place to cut through so there'll be an energy platform on the other side. But, where are your digimon?"

"Agumon's with Gabumon in the digital world, doing some sort of project for Gennai." Kari explained, shifting the strap of the bag on her shoulder. "And Gatomon is out with Gomamon."

Davis nodded as he remembered that Kari and Joe's digimon were in love. "So, how are we gonna get them?"

"We'll contact them from MIRROR and send someone to pick them up, same as you guys." Tolamon motioned for them to go down the stairs.

The three digidestined did so and they soon found themselves back out on the street. Randy's digimon directed them down a few turns until they came to an alley. That was where he told Tai to cut through. They stepped out onto the blue energy platform and waited for the train to come.

**neoKOS-MOS:** Well, it was a little lame, but it served it's purpose. Actually was longer than I expected. Hope you all liked it.

_Dark Qiviut:_ Thanks for sticking with me. It's getting along there. Glad you liked the conversation between Jun and Rika. I thought it was pretty good.

_SalimaLiAkiyama_: Glad you liked both of them. And I know DavisRika is a strange one, but it's great too. Thanks for reading.

_thegreatwhitewolf_: Finally you get to it. But, I'm glad it was good. What exactly makes it so cool?

**_Well, try to review on your way out. Thanks…_**


	10. Journey

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon or the idea of external souls. Hopefully you'd know that by now, so I could stop saying it every time.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Well, this chapter came about sooner than I expected, especially for the length of it. It's actually longer than the second one, the challenge chapter. –reviewers rejoice- But, I hope you like it all the same. They finally leave! And it's fun on the way.

Read and enjoy.

**Journey**

Rika watched over the next hour as the rest of the digidestined and their digimon filed in. Only Mimi, Joe, and Cody, who had been out of the country, weren't there by the time Adara decided to call them together to explain what was going to happen next. The redhead separated herself from Henry and went back over to find Davis. They all sat at the big desk in the middle of the red room, somehow finding enough chairs for everyone. The violet eyed girl sat next to Davis, Matt on her other side. Adara, Randy, and Nora walked into the interior of the wooden enclosure, only the boy sitting down. Along the outside, Sky and Wivrig lingered at the telescreens, keeping an eye on the happenings of the rest of the world.

Adara started it off. "I'm glad you're all here, safe and sound." She glanced over at Takato before going on. "Now, I know you've all had the information on the high level digimon we've asked you to help us fight. The reason those digimon were assigned to our surveillance is that they are the ones that are going to invade your worlds when the cycle hits us."

"Why didn't you tell us that before?" Matt asked.

"Well," she responded. "It's common knowledge to us, so it probably slipped my mind."

Randy grinned at that, but kept quiet.

"What Adara means is," Nora went on, "that when these three digimon are destroyed, your worlds will be pretty much safe. If you guys help us now, we can get them out of the picture and ensure the safety of your homes and families."

"We already decided that we're going to do this." Henry said from across the desk.

"Right, but we're still giving you the chance to back out if you want." Randy told him. "We don't want any of you to feel like we're forcing you into this." He gave a pointed look toward Jeri.

The girl smiled back and shrugged. "If Katzemon thinks he's ready, so am I."

He shrugged and looked to Adara for her to go on.

The dark haired girl glanced over the line of people. "Now, you all know that there are three digimon. That poses a problem, doesn't it? How do we split you up?"

"Well," Izzy looked up, "There's an ice type, a darkness type, and an electric type. I'm thinking you want an element advantage, if they're as strong as you say they are."

"Right." Nora moved over and sat on the edge of the desk, in a spot where no one's view was blocked. "So, we have a proposition for you."

Adara slid her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "Both Wivrig and I have fire type digimon, so we'll be leading the group against Hieldramon. The team I'm suggesting is Tai, Davis, Ken Rika, and Sora."

"Sounds good to me." Tai said, glancing around and getting nods from the rest of the team.

"Well, that's good." Randy leaned back in his chair. "I'll be leading the next team along with Sky against Nerezzamon. We were thinking it could be Izzy, Kari, Yolei, TK, and Henry."

Across the room, Rika saw Henry's eyes widen in surprise. "But, what about Suzie?"

"We're asking that you guys to split up."

The boy looked shocked for a moment, but then glanced over at his sister. The little girl looked blankly back at him, only a little sadness in her eyes.

"Don't worry, Henry. I have Lopmon to protect me," she whispered.

"But..."

"I'm a big girl. I'll be okay." Despite her happy words, the little girl's eyes fell to the table in front of her.

"Are you sure?" Randy asked. "Because if you're not, we'll rethink the team."

"No!" she said, standing up in her chair. "Henry will be okay on his own. He doesn't need me to be there."

The blonde ambassador smiled at this, but Rika's eyes were drawn to Henry. He was staring distantly into the table.

"Henry?" Randy asked, noticing.

He looked up, once again his old self. "We'll be okay apart. I'm assuming the rest of us will be fighting Zeismon?"

"Yeah." Nora stretched her legs. "I'll be leading that group. We might not have as much of an elemental advantage, but we'll have an extra fighter." She cast her gaze toward Ai and Mako.

"That sounds good." Matt nodded, looking around the table one last time. Everyone else seemed to agree.

As the meeting broke up, Rika looked over at Davis. "I'm gonna go talk to Henry."

The cinnamon haired boy frowned. "Okay."

"Davis, don't be jealous," she whispered. "I just need to talk to him before we split up. After that, I'm all yours."

He blushed, but grinned at her.

Rika weaved her way through the throng of people to find Henry kneeling in front of his sister. She walked up to them.

"You're sure, Suzie? If you wanna change it, I'm sure Randy won't mind."

"No!" She shook her head violently. "I'll be fine Henry. I'm a big girl."

Lopmon stood silently at her side, looking up at her partner. "We'll be okay. I promise I'll protect her with my life. Just make sure you're okay, too."

The boy sighed and nodded. "Okay." He stood up again and the little girl drifted away to Jeri.

Rika glanced over at him. "Henry, what's up?"

His eyes lifted up to hers. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," the girl answered.

He sighed and leaned against the wall. "I'm worried that Suzie will get hurt while I'm not there to protect her."

The redhead looked at him. "I think it's something more than that."

Henry glanced off across the room. "She's worried about me," he whispered, and after a long moment, added, "for some reason."

Rika moved over to lean against the wall next to him, following his gaze. "And why is that?"

The boy looked over at her, almost an angry expression on his face. "It's nothing, okay. I'm not going to tell you."

Taken aback, she stepped away from him a little. "What's that all about? I'm just trying to help you."

"Yeah, whatever," he muttered stiffly. "Nobody can help. Just leave me alone, Rika."

She stared after him as he trudged away from her, over to where his digimon was talking with Guilmon. Pausing for a moment, the girl sighed and walked back over to Davis, who was sitting on the desk and talking with his sister.

"Hey, what happened?" he asked as she came over.

The girl shook her head. "I don't know. He's acting weird."

Before she could explain further, there was a loud beeping sound that echoed from one of the computer consoles. Everyone looked up and an older boy walked out of the elevator room. At his side was a flaming red Meramon. Adara made her way over to shake the newcomer's hand.

"Hi, Ivan. Thanks for coming."

"You're welcome. I'll take good care of your base while your gone. Just make sure you guys come back."

The girl nodded with a smile and then turned back to everyone else. "Okay guys, we're ready to go. Just come this way and we'll be on our way."

Ivan and his digimon moved over to the computers and the rest of them crowded over to the door. Rika grabbed Davis's hand and shoved her way to the opening first. She followed Adara through the rip that Ivan had left, and onto the elevator. Everyone filed on after and they rode down to the platform below. There was a train waiting for them, and they all found a seat. Rika grabbed a window seat and Davis sat down next to her.

"I'm so excited." He grinned as they gently took off from the platform. "I'm glad you're coming with, too."

The violet eyed girl smiled back at him and then set her head against the energy glass window, closing her eyes. "I'm so tired. I think the adrenaline rush of my fight with Devidramon finally wore off."

Davis yawned too, slumping down in his seat so he could rest is head against the back of it. "Me too. It's late in my world, and today's been crazy enough anyway."

The girl nodded. "How long are we gonna be on this train?"

"I don't know," he whispered sleepily. "It's never very long, anyway."

She nodded again, already feeling her mind trying to drift off into sleep.

-

She was pulled awake again as the train slid to a slow stop. Her eyes snapped open and she looked over to see Adara's hand on her shoulder. The older girl smiled at her.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Not long," she answered. "We'll be able to sleep once we get to the digital world. Almost everyone else fell asleep too."

Rika glanced around behind her and saw that it was true. Kazu had sprawled out over two seats, and Jeri was sleeping with her head resting on Takato's shoulder. Matt drowsed gracefully, sitting up next to his brother. Only Kari and Ai were still awake, the older girl staring out the window as Izzy slept in the chair next to hers. Ai held a sleeping Impmon in her arms.

"Help me wake everybody up?" Adara asked in a whisper.

The violet eyed girl smiled and nodded.

They went about the process of waking the others up and then everyone filed sleepily out of the train. The energy platform they came out onto was different, and Rika could feel it through the soles of her feet. The vibration was different, as was the lighter pitch to its humming. And it was a blue-purple color, different from the usually deep cobalt blue.

"What's wrong with the platform?" Takato asked, staring down between his feet.

"It's a different color because it's linked to the Core." Randy explained. "We can only cut into in from one of these purple platforms, or a special area created inside of MIRROR."

"There's no turning back now." Sky said, stepping forward into the center. He pulled out his ghost-black digivice and cut through the air.

Slowly, everyone went through into the digital world. Rika stepped through and looked around. She swallowed a feeling of familiarity. It looked a lot like the digital world she had visited with the rest of the Tamers the first time they had ventured into it. A cold dry wind blew across the bleak landscape, throwing dust into her face. The ground was cracked with thirst, jaggedly sharp points poking up from the deep chasm that opened up a few meters away from the window. The wind blew again, howling through the torn ground. Jagged cliffs also rose up in the distance, deep obsidian black with deathlike bird digimon spiraling above them.

"Um, wow." Takato muttered as he took in the scene.

"It's a pretty dead place." Randy acknowledged, looking around as well. "But we're safe here." He turned around and pointed to a dusty white building situated behind them.

Sky closed up the rip and Adara led the group off toward the building. Their feet left footprints in the shifting dust as they approached. The dark haired girl stopped in front of the tightly locked door and held her digivice up to an analyzer port. A shining of pale blue energy flew out to engulf the red digivice before shutting off with a quiet beep.

The door hissed and then slid upward into the ceiling, revealing a dark interior. Momentarily, soft fluorescent lights blinked on to reveal a large room. As they filed inside, Rika saw that it had two of the same kind of computer consoles. Deeper in the room there were rows of beds made up in while linen.

The door snapped closed behind them and Adara sighed, seating herself in one of the console chairs. "I'll sign us in for the night. The rest of you can get some sleep."

Rika sighed in the warmer air, feeling the tiredness seep back into her. Everyone started drifting toward the beds, and the violet eyed girl headed for one farthest from the door. She kicked off her shoes and set her bag down on the floor before sitting down to claim it as her own. Jeri and Sora came over as well, the rest of the girls following and marking that half of the room as their own. The redhead watched Davis collapse on one of the cots near the computers. She shrugged and rolled over so her back was to the boys' side. The lights dimmed down before Adara made her way over and took the bed across from Rika's. In the dark, she felt her eyes close as she drifted back to sleep.

-

The alarm woke her up. She groaned and turned over, cramming the pillow over her head. It went on for another minute before shutting itself off. Rika sighed and tried to go back to sleep. She was so tired.

"Come on, Rika. You have to get up." Nora's voice came from the edge of the bed next to her ear.

After a moment, the violet eyed girl yielded and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and then looked around. Most of the others were still asleep, despite the alarm.

Already dressed in all green, Nora motioned toward another door set in the back wall. "There's showers through there. It'll probably be the last one you take in a while."

Nodding, the younger girl pushed herself up and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes, something warm for the cold air outside. Then she went to take that shower. Inside the bathroom, there were six open showers, water pooling in the bottom of all but one. Yawning, Rika stuffed her clothes on the shelf outside the dry one and went inside to wash herself off, pulling the shower curtain behind her. Torey even let the warm water splash into his fur, preparing himself for a long time of dirt and grime. When he was finally tired of the water, the lynx seated himself in the corner and went about the process of licking himself dry.

When Rika was done, fully dressed and now awake, she left the bathroom and went back into the first room. Adara and Randy were both sitting at one of the computers, while Nora stood at one of the shaded windows, Delphiniumon's rookie form of Rhyzomon clutched in her arms. Scooping up her soul, Rika went over to stand next to the green haired girl.

Rhyzomon, a small plant digimon with four short legs and a long muscular body, looked over at her, the petal frill around her neck brushing lightly against Nora's shirt. "Are you ready for all this, Rika?"

The girl blinked, looking out through the window at the bleak landscape beyond. "Yes. It's something we have to do."

"It'll be harder on you than the others." The green clad girl whispered, watching as Matt and Sky passed the window on their way back inside. "You have more responsibility as a seer."

"I have more responsibility as a seer anyway. It doesn't only apply to this."

Nora nodded and sighed, setting the floral lizard on the ground as the two boys entered through the door. "Can I ask if you've seen anything lately?"

The redhead hugged Torey tighter to her chest. "No. I haven't seen anything other than the dream I had about Hieldramon."

"You dreamt about him?" The other girl turned to look at her.

Rika nodded. "Yeah. Why? Is that strange?"

Nora shook her head. "What happened? Anything worth noting?"

"No." Torey replied. "It was just telling us that he was the one we were going to be fighting."

The violet eyed girl frowned, looking down at the lynx. "Really? Why didn't you tell me that?"

"You never asked," he replied with a grin.

"Okay, wake up TK." Behind them, Matt plunked himself down on his brother's bed and beat him awake with a pillow.

Slowly, everyone else woke up and took their final shower. Even the younger kids did, after some prodding from Sora and their digimon. Afterward, they all came together outside the building for the last of their good byes. Rika found herself hugging Jeri tightly. The two girls pulled apart and she saw tears rimming the brunette's soft eyes.

"It'll be okay, Jeri." She said, setting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I know. Just be careful, Rika."

The violet eyed girl smiled. "You too."

She moved on to Takato and winced as he attacked her in a hug. "Be careful, Rika. I'll miss you."

She struggled to pull away, but he still held her tightly. "Yeah. You too, Takato. Could you please stop crushing me?" she muttered though clenched teeth.

He let go of her and took a step back. "Sorry."

"Whatever," she responded with a casual shrug. "Just take care of Jeri."

The gogglehead blushed and nodded before moving on. Rika tried to kindly brushed off Kazu before he could try to hug her, but he didn't seem to take her hint, so she glared at him instead. Kenta nervously said good bye to her, grinding his toe into the dust the whole time. The girl said good bye to Ai and Mako, the both of them hugging her at the same time before she could stop them. Suzie was the same way. And last was Henry. They both of them stood silent across from each other before Rika stepped forward and threw her arms around him.

"I'll miss you," she whispered. "Don't do anything stupid."

He bit his lip. "Sorry I was so mean before."

"It's okay," she replied, pulling back and looking him in the eye. "You can tell me about it when we meet up again."

"Maybe," he said quietly. "Take care of yourself, Rika. I'll miss you too."

And, with that, she went about saying the same to the others. When she finally finished, she stood next to Davis and watched as the rest of the group finished up. Her eyes were drawn off to the side, where Henry knelt in front of Suzie, the two siblings hugging each other for the last time. And, as the boy pulled away, his sister handed something to him that seemed to strike him.

"Ready, guys?" Sora asked, clapping a hand on Rika's shoulder and snapping the girl's attention back to her own group.

The others had drifted over as well, though Adara was still talking with the other MIRROR kids off to the side. Tai stood watching his sister and her boyfriend, and Ken was next to Davis, Yolei still hugging him tightly. As Wivrig marched over, the plum haired girl finally split off to her own group. Jun stood up from where she had been sitting on a boulder.

"I hope you're all ready for this," the katrant said, her digimon shifting her eight feet restlessly as they waited for Adara to grab her bag and come over.

"All right," the dark haired girl sighed, finally stepping into the misshapen circle that had developed within the group. "We're ready to go." With one last wave to the others, she led them off over the rough terrain.

-

They had been walking for a long time. The ground was hard and uneven, crunching underfoot as she stepped down on the jagged edges of the parched earth. It seemed as if it should have been unbearably hot, but she wrapped her arms around herself at the brisk wind that had picked up in the last few minutes. As they approached the mountains in the distance, dust swirled through the air, obscuring the peaks in a brownish fog. The girl looked over to her side. On the horizon, she could just make out the black specks of another third of the digidestined, walking in a different direction toward a different goal. She sighed.

"You okay?" Davis asked, glancing over at her as he shifted the bookbag on his shoulder.

The girl nodded, blinking more dust out of her eyes. Sora looked over as well, the older girl holding Yokomon to her chest as the little creature couldn't make her way over the jagged ground. Tai and Agumon were far ahead, the two of them keeping good pace with Adara and Cougarmon and walking beside them. Somewhere in between those four and the rest of them, Wivrig and Ivosmon scampered along the ground in unison, both squeaking and whistling to each other in some kind of strange language. Ken walked silently at Davis's side, his eyes distant as Wormmon slept in his arms. In the back, Jun walked alone with Demiveemon in her arms. Renamon had dropped back beside the girl to keep an eye on her.

Rika squinted up at the sky. "Do you think it'll get colder when the sun goes down, because I'm cold as it is."

"It probably will." Sora replied. "And I know what you mean. I'm cold too."

"I don't understand why I'm with this group." Ken suddenly said out of nowhere. "Wormmon doesn't have any fire forms."

"It's because I need you for Veemon to reach Paildramon." Davis answered, glancing over at his friend.

"Yeah, but you'll be using Flamedramon. So, where does that leave me?"

Rika shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you should ask Wivrig," she added, peering ahead at the alien. She had stopped and was waiting for them to catch up.

They walked on in silence until they had caught up with the katrant and her digimon. Ivosmon grinned up at them with her vulpine smile and then scurried ahead to Tai and Adara.

Wivrig's one eye looked up at them as they stopped next to her. "Feeling tired?"

Sora shook her head. "I'm not tired. Only my feet from walking over this uneven ground."

The katrant bobbed her eye in agreement. "Me too. I think we should hitch a ride for a while to rest our feet."

"Hitch a ride?" Davis asked, looking down at her.

"Well, not so much find one as make one. Ivosmon said that it would be okay if some of you rode on her back in ultimate form, and maybe some of your digimon wouldn't mind carrying someone. This first leg of the journey is a hard one, and if we speed it up, I think we can reach Death Mountain Village by sundown. Then we won't have to camp out on the Javelin Plains tonight."

"Death Mountain Village?" Davis asked, looking uncomfortable. "Javelin Plains?"

"That's what this place is called," she answered. "And the village is only called that because it's near the mountain. Most of the digimon who live there aren't out to kill you."

"Most?" Jun asked, finally catching up with the group and the conversation. They started walking again.

"Hey, Renamon, do you think you could carry some of us as Kyuubimon?" Rika inquired, looking up at her partner now that she had caught up.

"I feel strong enough," the fox informed her quietly.

As soon as they had caught up with Adara and Tai, Wivrig discussed the idea with the dark haired girl, and they stopped for a moment so the digimon could change form.

Rika shuffled through her deck and miraculously found a blue card. Swiping it through her digivice, Renamon was engulfed in a sphere of blue energy before returning to the field in her champion form. Davis also pulled out his digivice, letting Demiveemon jump two levels to Raidramon.

Ivosmon's digivolution to Scorsamon was a strange one. Now in ultimate form, the little fox had lost most of her vulpine characteristics, taking on the body of a sand scorpion. Her carapace was a deep umber brown that glinted in the foggy sunlight. Six thin legs touched the ground in sharp points, while the other two were lifted off the ground and armed in two thin but powerful pinchers. Her sleek wolf-like head was furred in a color the same as her shell, long ears accenting a long snout and bright green eyes. Above her back, a powerful segmented tail arched to end in a cruelly sharp spine of a bright warning scarlet.

Wivrig jumped up on her digimon's back, the creature only slightly smaller than Raidramon. Agumon returned to Koromon and Tai brought him up to the sand scorpion's back, Adara jumping up behind him. As Cougarmon took to the air, Rika and Davis both mounted their own digimon.

Jun, with her hands in her pockets, looked up at both of them. "So, who do I go with?"

"Um..." Davis glanced between his sister and Ken, not sure.

"You can ride with me, Jun." Rika responded, Kyuubimon kneeling down slightly to help the older girl onto her back.

As Jun settled herself behind the violet eyed girl, the large fox took off, leaving the boys in the dust as she raced to catch up with Scorsamon.

"Thanks for taking me." The older girl shouted over the rush of wind.

"Why?" Rika asked over her shoulder. "You don't want to talk to your brother?"

After a second, she answered. "No. I wouldn't know what to say to him."

The redhead hugged Torey closer to her chest and squinted ahead through the dust. She still couldn't see anything. "I have a question for you. Did you bring any of the drugs with?"

She felt Jun go stiff behind her, and took it as a yes. "I had to, Rika. I can't go without them."

"How much did you bring?"

"There was a long pause before the other girl answered quietly. "Everything I had. It wasn't much, though."

"Jun."

"Just a bag of marijuana and a little crack."

"Jun, you should leave it all behind," she said, turning to look over her shoulder at the girl.

"But I can't. I..."

"You need it, right?" the violet haired girl turned back to look ahead of herself. "You're addicted."

"I can't just quit cold turkey. I've tried. It's impossible." There was a desperate tone to her voice.

"Have you tried it when there's no possible temptation to restart again?" Rika again looked over her shoulder to catch Jun's eye, driving the point home.

The older girl stared at her for a moment before dropping her eyes away. "No. Mark always ruined it."

She nodded and turned to face forward again, letting Jun think it through in silence.

-

The three digimon trotted side by side as they approached the village, the sun already beginning to go down. From Kyuubimon's back, Rika eyed the pot-shaped buildings with thatched grass roofs. Even along the outskirts, she could see digimon shuffling about. The base of the mountain on the other side of the village was covered with a patchwork of different colors, each a different kind of food being grown for the population. As they reached the first of the deep brown houses, Scorsamon slowed to a stop and Adara jumped off her back. Kyuubimon and Raidramon stopped too, and the three large digimon reverted to their smaller forms.

Rika followed the others through the dirt-road streets, her shoes kicking up more dust to add to the permanent cloud that billowed around their ankles. The resident digimon of the village soon realized that there where humans in their midst, and the group got their fair share of stares, not all of them friendly or innocently curious. An Ogremon thumped his giant club in one massive hand, eyeing Adara ominously. The dark haired girl just shifted the strap of her red tank top and glared back at him, almost egging on an attack of some kind.

They passed farther into the city unharmed. It was bustling busily despite the low position of the sun on the horizon, digimon everywhere bartering and making their way through the crowded streets. Rika watched Jun in the center of the group, the older girl hugging herself tightly since she had no digimon to hold. Suddenly, something slimy and prehensile wrapped around the redhead's ankle, tripping her up. A sprinkling of diamond shards pinned the Numemon to the ground even before Rika regained her footing.

That simple motion seemed to trigger something in the crowd. As if they had been looking for some reason to attack the humans in their midst, a Devimon and two Phantomon rushed in toward the group. Instantly, Cougarmon and Ivosmon sprung into action.

The cat notched an arrow to his bow and loosed it in the devil's direction. The rookie scorpion puffed up her body in a glow of fiery heat and sent it flooding over the two ghosts. A moment later, Veemon landed a sickening headbutt in Devimon's stomach, sending the black digimon flying into the crowd again. Another hail of glass shards prickled from the Phantomon before they too fled from the scene. Giving the crowd a good stare down, Adara turned and led the way on deeper into the village.

This time, Rika watched where she was going and what was going on around her. She saw the death-thin wolf digimon lay eyes on her before he approached to fully catch her attention.

"What do you want?" she asked the Fangmon warningly.

He lowered his head in submission to her before speaking. "Do you require shelter for the night? I can lead you to a safe place it you so wish this humble servant to do so, Madame Seer."

Thrown off guard, Rika paused, looking over to Adara. She received a nod, so she turned back to the wolf. "Lead us there."

The eight of them and their digimon followed the Fangmon through side streets and along crowded main roads before he came to a stop outside a large building. It was the same rust brown color as the other buildings, and the same squareish shape that had developed in the architecture as they walked father into the village. Outside, a large purple sign was scrawled in binary and another digimon language. The Fangmon led the way inside, his mangy coat and dirty leg bindings standing out in the neat cleanliness of the interior.

It was a large room that they entered, with the ceiling arching up above them for almost ten feet. Rika noticed that the walls were painted a deep inviting red with bright yellow trimming as Adara stepped up to the oval shaped desk in the center of the room.

"We'd like two rooms," she told the Tapirmon behind the desk, holding up two fingers to emphasize her statement.

The ghost mammal nodded and turned around, searching around through a jumbled board of keys tacked to a corkboard. After a moment, he pulled off two and set them on the counter in front of Adara's silver ringed fingers.

"That will be sixty digidollars," he told her with timid authority.

The girl nodded and took out her digivice, holding it out to him, but not inviting him to take it. The tapir produced a reader device and transferred the credits from the digivice into the hotel's account.

"Fangmon will show you to your rooms," he informed them before turning away to tend to a stack of paperwork.

The sickly red wolf stood from where he had been seated next to the desk and stalked off across the room, making sure that they were following. They climbed two flights of stairs before he stopped in front of a door, text in the same two languages printed into the mahogany wood.

"This room and the one across the hall are yours," he informed them. "I hope you enjoy your stay at Death Oasis."

As the digimon turned to go, Adara handed Rika a digidollar, motioning for her to tip him.

"Fangmon," the violet eyed girl called out, watching him stop and look back. She held it out to him. "Thank you for your help."

The shaggy creature's eyes lit up slightly, and he nodded his gratitude. "Thank you, Madame Seer. I will inform no one of your presence here." The wolf took the money in his mouth and stalked back down the hallway, leaving them alone.

"Well," Adara sighed. "It looks like you made a good impression there, Rika. Good night boys." She waved to the three of them before pushing open the door to the first room.

The other four girls filed in after, their eyes happily greeted with four beds and a clean bathroom. Rika dropped her stuff on the floor next to one of the beds and collapsed down, tired.

"What a long day." Sora whispered to herself in the next bed over. "I haven't been this tired since the last time I was stuck in the digital world."

Adara, still standing, smiled. "Well, we're all really tired, but I do recommend that we keep watch during the night."

Rika sighed, but was silenced as Renamon spoke up. "I will watch first. You need not waste sleep. I and the rest of the digimon can guard you."

"She's right." Cougarmon muttered from where he was already curled up in the corner.

Wivrig yawned widely, displaying a kind array of molars and long canines. "I like that idea," the katrant said as she curled up on the large padded rug on the floor.

"Okay. Then I'm gonna get some sleep." Adara added, sitting down and picking through her bag.

The girls changed into their pajamas in exhausted silence, and Ivosmon hit the lights as they slid under the fresh smelling covers. Rika's eyes closed, but there was still something on her mind.

"How did he know I was a seer?" She asked in the darkness.

"Your eyes." Sora whispered to her.

"Will they all know what I am? None of the other digimon ever called me that before."

"They might," Wivrig breathed from the floor. "You'll have to be careful."

"But how do they all know?"

"The Core is a different place than you're used to. Word of things the Entity wants spread fast." Adara's tired voice was loud in the relative silence, only the sound of the night rush drifting through the closed window.

"Will we be okay?" Jun asked, the sound of shifting blankets coming from her direction.

"Of course." Rika assured her, turning over and hugging Torey to her chest to get comfortable.

"Good night, guys." Sora whispered again.

"Good night," they all responded as Rika felt herself drift off to sleep.

**neoKOS-MOS:** Well, that was a long and interesting chapter. Hope it was full of surprises and all that jazz. Next chapter is the one I've been excited about for a long time. And it'll definitely be different. And now, in true SK fashion, we'll respond at the end.

_Dark Qiviut:_ Hey there, DQ. Thanks for the advice. I kept wondering if I should have capitalized any of them. Oh, and I tried to conform to the dialogue standard on your profile for this chapter. Is that better?

Ha. I knew that someone would pick up on the Mrs. Pretty Pants allusion. I'm trying to show that Suzie's matured a little, and now she's the one taking care of Ai and Mako. And the reference to Mrs. Kamiya's cooking was one that I even cracked up while writing.

_SalimaLiAkiyama:_ Thanks for he kind words. I hope this was fast enough for you. It was faster than I expected.

_ApricotKisses:_ Oh my. I was giggling when I saw that you were back. It's okay that you're late. I know how it is to get hung up on things, especially school. I'm glad you like this little thing so much. Can you put your finger on why?

The Kari/Davis scene was something I was careful about. Didn't want either of them to come out looking stupid or mean. Glad you like it. I did like that line too. –giggling at the memory- I'll respond to the rest of the review via e-mail.

_**Well, thanks for stopping by. Reviews are cherished as always.**_


	11. Ghost Dog

**Disclaimer: **I don't own digimon. Wow, that's all I have to disclaim this time. Yahoo!

**neoKOS-MOS: **Hi, hi! Well, this is the chapter that I've been excited about for the last three chapters now. Think back, and that's a pretty long time. First off, they split up, remember? Well, I have to recount the happenings of the other groups, so this one is on Henry's voice. Also, he's affected by something in my version. See how you like it. It's kinda sad, but that's just part of the story.

Read and enjoy, everyone…

**Ghost Dog**

They had been walking for a long time. Henry walked with his eyes closed, despite the fact that it caused him to stumble over the uneven ground every once in a while. He had finally gotten Terriermon to leave him alone. The rabbit dog had been sitting on his head for the past hour and whispering things in his ear as he tried to think. Finally it had gotten on his nerves enough that he had told the digimon to go away. He had gotten a hurt expression, but hadn't let that bother him. Much.

His toe caught in another of those jagged gaps and he tripped, thankfully catching himself before he fell flat on his face on the spiky ground. The boy sighed and slipped his hands into his pockets, shifting the bag on his back at the same time.

Up ahead, he could see the four figures of Randy, Sky, Yolei, and TK. They were talking loudly, but the words were swept away in the dusty, dirty wind. Terriermon was up there walking next to Chispamon, looking as if there was nothing wrong with his partner. Henry sighed again, glancing behind him to see how far back Izzy and Kari were. Only ten feet away. He walked a little faster to put some space between them and himself.

It was hanging over him. His hands tingled in his pockets, but he was trying with all his might to push that out of his mind. The dusty wind hit him again in the face and he felt the minuscule particles pelting against his skin. He ground his teeth against it.

What Suzie had said to him was haunting his thoughts as well. She was so young. Little girls weren't supposed to say things like that. They were supposed to smile and play, carefree and safe from all the things in the world that they couldn't control. It made him feel guilty, even though he knew it shouldn't have. The boy sighed again.

_Remember what the doctor said, Henry. Tell it to go away..._

He swallowed. It sounded so easy. What did she know? But that was the thing. Of course she knew how hard it was. That was why she had said it the way she had.

_You have to be strong without me..._

It was something he should have been saying to her. He was the older one, after all. The one who was supposed to protect her. And that was where the guilt came from, the fact that he was the one who needed someone to rely on.

He tripped again. He didn't catch himself this time. Henry found himself down in the dirt, and he pushed himself up to a kneeling position before he stood again. His green eyes were riveted to the dust coating his palms. They were crawling with it. Something that mimicked a moan escaped his lips, and he hesitated between rubbing them on his equally filthy pants and rubbing them together to get most of the dirt off.

"Stop it," he whispered to himself, the voice in his head. "It's nothing."

But deep in the corners of his mind, it wasn't. Someone as logical as Henry wasn't supposed to have irrational fears like this. And it especially wasn't supposed to happen here. It only happened at home, where he could control it. Why was this happening to him?

They stopped for a while to eat lunch. Randy and the others plopped down in the dust. Henry bit his lip hard as he walked back into the group. Something that tasted like blood but was only plasma filled his mouth as he forced himself to sit down as well.

"It's getting warmer." Izzy remarked as they all watched Sky produce sandwiches from the pack he carried on his back.

"Yeah." Randy remarked, squinting down at his digivice for a moment. "We're getting out of the ice tundra of the Javelin Plains. Don't get too excited, though. Soon it'll get really hot and you'll be wishing for this chill."

Kari sighed and laid back, setting her bag under her head. "Great. I just hope I don't get sunburn, though I guess I should get all the sun I can, since we'll be plunging into a cave soon."

"How far away is it?" TK asked as he paused in biting into his sandwich.

Both Sky and Randy glanced at each other for a moment.

"I thought you knew." The heliophobe said, hand clutching at his own digivice so he could look at it.

"Don't tell me we're lost." Yolei jumped up and scanned the horizon, one hand held over her eyes to shield them from the sun overhead. "I can't believe you got us lost."

""We're not." Chispamon frowned disappointedly at the two ambassadors. "We should get there in a day and a half."

"That's a lot of walking." TK muttered, digging through his own bag before producing a bottle of water.

"Here, Henry." Kari said, holding out one of the plastic wrapped sandwiches to him.

The boy stared at it, jaw set against the reaction he felt in his gut. "Thanks," he managed to whisper as he let his fingers wrap around it.

Those fingers were so dirty. He could see the dust in the creases of his fingerprints, leaving tan smudges on the clear plastic. Hoping his face wasn't showing the emotional distress he was feeling, the boy peeled back the bag and stared down at the white bread. The wind picked up again and dusted the sandwich with particles. Shutting his eyes, Henry lifted it to his mouth and took a bite.

_Dirt! What are you doing?_ his mind screamed, but he shoved it aside and chewed.

They had started walking again. They had separated out into the same groups as before, Henry safely in the middle where no one could ask him anything. His hands were deep in his pockets, clenched into fists to give him some kind of reassurance. He felt sick at the meal he had eaten before. Up ahead, he saw Terriermon had stopped and was waiting for him to catch up. The boy sighed and wiped his forehead with his arm. It had grown hot in the past half hour. He was sweating and it dripped down his arms and face. He felt disgusting, and it made him want to scream.

"You doing all right, Henry?" Terriermon asked as they finally got close enough.

"Peachy," he muttered, balling his fists up even more, fingernails pressing into his palms.

"Henry." The rabbit dog looked up at him as he passed. Then he walked to follow the boy, catching a light hold on his pant leg.

"What do you want?" the dark haired boy snapped.

Terriermon frowned up at him, angry. "Stop it! I know it's bothering you, but you're gonna have to get used to it."

The boy stopped and turned to look back at his digimon. "What do you want me to do? Tell myself to stop being crazy?"

"You're not crazy, Henry."

"Terriermon..." He trailed off as the tears sprung to his eyes. "It's not supposed to affect me here."

"I know." The digimon moved over and crawled up to his partner's head, flaring his ears to shade the boy.

Henry started walking again, watching his step over the spiky ground. "I don't understand what I did wrong. It just started when they came though."

"I know," the dog whispered, shifting his weight. "You should take some of the medication."

"I was at the end of my prescription." Henry whispered back, his body stiffening again. "I only have twelve left. What'll I do when I run out?"

"I don't know, Henry, but you can't go on like this. You look like you're about to scream."

"I am."

After so much walking, it was unbearably hot. When they had started out the ridges on the horizon had been far in the distance, but now they were looming ominously close. Henry's green eyes rested on the deep black protrusion, covered with angular crags and shadowed holes. He had stopped earlier to take one of the small white pills that seemed to keep his mind from driving him insane. Now he could stare up at the rock formation and actually think about it, not just the filth he was covered in.

Next to him, Izzy was talking out loud to himself, doing calculations on how high the cliffs were and how long it would take them to reach the base.

"Twenty minutes," the genius muttered, wiping his forehead with a black sleeve. "Man, I should have realized we'd be walking through a hot desert."

"I told you that it would be good to vary your wardrobe." Kari said, coming up behind him and hugging him.

"Ug. Get off," he responded, pushing her away from his sweat soaked shirt.

"Hey, Patamon," Yolei called, holding her hair in a bun with one hand to keep it off her neck. "Do you think you could give us a breeze?"

"I could do that just as well, Yolei." Hawkmon complained, instantly fanning his partner with his stubby wings.

"Thanks, Hawkmon," she sighed, turning so the created wind fell across the back of her neck.

"You think you're hot..." Sky muttered as he trudged pitifully by, dressed from head to toe in his black lightsuit.

"Oh, cheer up, Sky." Randy grinned at the heliophobe. "Soon we'll be in the cave where it's drafty and cold. Then you'll be glad you have it on."

"Drafty and cold." Terriermon shifted his weight on Henry's head as he depressingly spoke the words.

"Look guys," Chispamon had perked up a little as he peered at the horizon. "There's shade in the shadow of the ridge."

Patamon instantly streaked off through the hot air. "Yay!"

"Patamon, come back here!" the bat-eared digimon's partner ran off after him.

"Shade sounds good to me, too." Yolei took off in a run as well toward the towering rock structure.

Randy stuffed his hands into his pockets and continued walking. "Anyone else?"

The remaining three humans shook their heads, and Sky just grunted.

"Can I, Sky?" Refletamon's wings shuttered in anticipation of flight as she curled herself around to look her partner in the eye.

"Sure. See if you can find us some more water while you're at it."

The little snake took to the air and flitted across the spiky ground. Sky sighed again and let himself slump down, twisting his body at the bag he had tied to his back. Henry looked away across the plains. The wind had died when the heat had come. He was just glad they were almost to their destination.

The sun was still hot overhead, but it was beginning to dip toward the horizon. Henry ignored the blaring light and the still air. He still couldn't tear his mind from the predicament he had been thrown in, even though the medication kept the worst of the thoughts at bay. What was he going to do when he ran out?

"Shade, Henry." Terriermon pointed ahead, just within his line of vision. Sure enough, there was a black splotch of it over the rocky outcropping at the base of the ridge.

"Do you see any water?" the boy asked his partner, swallowing with a dry throat.

"Yeah. I think there's a pond or something."

"Really?" Kari's eyes lit up and she instantly took off for the shade.

Henry did the same. He couldn't help himself. He desperately wanted to wash his hands. The two humans ran over the dusty ground, Gatomon in tow, until that dark lack of sun fell over them. Kari sighed and moved over toward Yolei where the plum haired girl had collapsed on a shade cooled boulder. Henry kept himself walking forward and knelt down in front of the pool of water. It was crystal clear all the way to the bottom, maybe a yard beneath the surface. The smell of fresh water hit him, and he was struck with even more thirst than before. Stiffening against that, the dark haired boy tended to the thing that most occupied his mind.

He slipped his hands into the cool water and watched as dust began to drift off them in the tiny current. Then he rubbed them together, trying to get them clean.

"Don't over do it, Henry" Terriermon said, slipping down from his hat position to stand at the edge of the pond as well.

The boy nodded, cleaning his fingernails. He rubbed his hands together again.

"Okay, stop it," the digimon told him, gripping one of his arms with a tiny paw. He drew his partner's hands out of the water. "I thought you were thirsty."

The boy stared down at his hands. They looked clean, but that irrational fear again told him that they were not. "It's wearing off," he breathed.

"Henry?"

"It's supposed to be full strength for a whole day. It hasn't even been half a day, and it's already wearing off."

"Drink the water, Henry." Terriermon ordered stiffly.

"What am I gonna do? I can't just..."

"Do it!" The digimon grabbed his water bottle and filled it up for him. "Here. Drink it. Do you want to look crazy in front of the others?"

Henry swallowed, his hands trembling slightly as he took the bottle. "Sorry."

The sun set over the ridge, plunging their camping ground into dark prematurely. Sky had set up his light-tent so that he could eat and drink without burning his fragile skin. Randy had set up a fire and he and TK were preparing dinner for the rest of the ravenous travelers. Henry sat with the girls and Izzy, trying to ignore the thoughts that were passing through his mind. The darkness had always seemed to still the thoughts, and he was glad that the same thing was true here.

"Did he really say that?" Yolei was asking Kari.

"Well," the short haired girl sat back against the rock and shrugged. "He didn't exactly say it, but I could tell by the look on his face."

"So, Dai has a girlfriend. Is it Miyuki like you thought?"

Kari traced little patterns on her jeans until Yolei elbowed her in the side. "Ow! No, it isn't."

"Pay up!" the girl demanded, holding her hand out.

"What?" Kari stared at her. "I don't have any money on me. Why would I bring it here?"

Izzy pulled out his wallet and handed Yolei the three dollars she was owed. Then he turned to his girlfriend. "That's why. Now you can owe me."

"Oh, but Izzy!"

"Nope," he teased. "You'll pay me back later."

"Hey," Yolei crawled across to peer over the top of the older boy's open laptop. "What are you doing on there anyway? Taking notes?"

He gave her a confused look. "What? No. I'm logging what we've been doing today."

"Walking. Sweating. Being unbearably hot." The plum haired girl ticked off the points on her fingers. "More walking. Um, yeah. I think that's it."

Izzy laughed. "You take horrible notes, Yolei."

"I thought you weren't taking notes." Kari scolded, stealing the computer from him to read off the screen. "Walking. Kari and I had a nice chat. I think I'm gonna have to rework my paper again. She's right about the crystal matrix of ice on nickel-iron asteroids."

"Do you really think so?" The girl looked over at him.

"Yes. Now, gimme." He lunged over to try and snatch if from her, but she tossed it carefully to Yolei. "Kari!"

The plum haired girl read this time. "...nickel-iron asteroids. Food was great after the all the walking, even though Tentomon ate half my sandwich. Henry was acting a little strange, though that's probably because he's separate from his sister."

Izzy crept around and slammed the screen down over the keyboard. "Give me that," he said, taking it back to where he had been sitting before and carefully opening it again, eyeing each of the girls cautiously as they collapsed laughing.

"That's true, though." Yolei said as she came out of her laughing fit. "You have been acting kinda strange, Henry."

The dark haired boy had stiffened as she had read the sentence, but he was glad it had given him an easy excuse for his odd behavior. "Yeah. I'm just worried about how Suzie's doing on her own."

"How old is she, anyway?" Kari asked politely.

"She's nine. I know she's not that young anymore, but I still worry about her."

The short haired girl nodded. "I understand. Tai feels the same way about me."

"Dinner's ready guys." Randy called from the fire, already eating out of a light aluminum bowl.

"Cool." The rest of them got up and went over to get some of the rice.

Henry hadn't really realized, but he was ravenous. Of course, all of them were, each rushing to get their fill before the digimon devoured the rest of it. They barely even spoke to each other. After their hunger had been satisfied, the exhaustion really hit them. Kari pulled a blanket out of her bag and spread it out over the dusty ground. Everyone laid down as well, and Henry felt his eyes close as Terriermon snuggled up next to him.

"Night, guys." Randy whispered, the last thing any of them heard.

_The whole room had been torn apart. The first thing he saw was the door on the carpet, splintered and broken into pieces. The rug was burnt and stained with black. Smoke curled in wisps along the ceiling, unable to find an escape. He stepped onto the broken door and looked into the room, finding furniture thrown aside, his mother's favorite lamp lying shattered on the floor._

_"Mom?" he heard himself call. "Dad?"_

_Only silence met his ears, and he stepped farther into the room, footsteps crunching on a carbonized section of the carpet._

_"Henry." The word was barely audible, but he followed it to his parents room._

_"Mom?" he breathed again, seeing the bed thrown up against the wall._

_He threw the mattress aside to find his mother hiding beneath it. "Mom, are you okay? Where's dad?"_

_"He went for help after you left. Are you all right?"_

_"Yeah." Behind him, his sister stepped into the doorway, hugging her digimon to her chest. "Mom, do you remember what happened two years ago? With all the digimon?"_

_"You have to leave again," she whispered, understanding. "Just be careful."_

_He nodded and pulled away as she sat up. _

_...the dream shifted, and he found himself somewhere else..._

_Deep somewhere in the pitch darkness. Henry looked down over himself to see his body streaked with dirt and grime. Pale skin turned black with it. He was sinking into something horrible and filthy. Panic hit him, and he tried wading through the molasses-thick sludge, searching for something to pull himself out of it. Something touched his palm, and he gripped it, only to cry out and throw it away from him, something slimy and gross. He started sinking faster into the oily gross ooze, almost as if it was pulling him down on its own accord. And then it started climbing up his body, faster and faster with its disgustingly cold and filthy slime. It reached his shoulders and began to rise up his neck. Heart beating roughly in his chest, the boy desperately tried to work his arms out of the goop to push it off of himself, but they were lodged in it._

_"No," his mind screamed. "No!"_

_But as he opened his mouth to voice it, the slime plunged in, choking him with the oily taste of a filthy thick liquid._

Henry came out of the dream in a start, almost a scream escaping him. He slapped a hand over his mouth and crawled away from the spot where he had been sleeping. He crawled over to the pond and sat down next to the edge of the water. He would not throw up. He told himself that. It was only a dream. No reason to freak out. But even before he had realized it, he was washing his hands in the cool water, scrubbing them roughly to get off the feeling. A feeling that wasn't there, but that he still felt he had to remove. Grabbing a handful of the sand resting in the bottom of the pool, he used that to scrub his hands harder. The grains hurt his skin, and he couldn't help but moan as he felt them rubbing his fingers raw. The sparkling clarity of the water darkened as cuts formed in his skin, blood seeping through them.

"That's a silly thing to do," a young sounding voice said in the darkness behind him.

Henry whirled around, his wet hands coming to rest on his dusty knees. "Who's there."

"Shhh. I told you too keep quiet, Welpemon," a female voice whispered.

It was a familiar voice. Henry swallowed, still staring at the place the voices had come from. "Who are you?"

There was the sound of tiny feet scrabbling against the rocky outcropping. "Welpemon, come back here," the female voice called out again.

Bits of rubble tumbled down and Henry saw the hint of something small and furry land amongst the sprinkling of rocks. The creature carefully moved forward, crawling silently over the dusty ground. Henry stiffened and moved back a little, glancing over at the pale form of Terriermon sleeping in the moonlight. Something else landed where the first creature had, something much larger and taller. This one, he could tell, was humanoid and black. It took a step forward and then leaned down, scooping up the small digimon.

"What do you want?" he asked, looking up at the larger one.

"Nothing, Henry," she whispered, sitting down next to him.

And then the moonlight fell across her face, and he realized that the person he was talking to wasn't a digimon, but a human being. "Alice."

Something like a smile passed across her features, and she gazed into the water.

"But..." He stared at her in the soft lighting, her hair the same as it had been last time he had seen her, the same dress on her thin form. "But you disappeared."

"I had grieving to do," she breathed, running a hand over the head of the digimon in her lap.

"Grieving?" His eyes fell to the little creature as he finally saw it's features.

It was a small digimon, the size of a teddy bear, but nowhere as cute. He was canine in nature, with a sharp wolf like head and deep black fur. His black eyes glinted in the moonlight and he looked up to meet Henry's with them. He was bipedal, by the look of his body, with delicate hands covered in thin leather gloves. His feet were bare and his legs were covered in torn black jeans.

"Is that Dobermon?" he asked quietly.

She smiled a sad, amused smile. "In a certain way."

"What does that mean?" the little digimon asked, twisting around to look her in the face.

"Shhh." She ran a hand over his head again. "You've caused enough trouble by talking."

The dog frowned and looked over at Henry. "So, what were you doing, anyway?"

"Welpemon." Alice scolded him, setting a hand over his short muzzle.

Henry had stiffened again at the question, his eyes falling back to the shimmering water. "I..." He stopped and closed his eyes. "I was scared."

"We all do strange things when we're scared." Alice whispered.

"But it doesn't make sense for you to hurt yourself." Welpemon pushed the girl's hand away to speak.

The boy sighed, dull reality slipping into his voice. "Things should make sense, shouldn't they?"

"Are you hurt?" the girl asked, setting the digimon aside to take Henry's hands into her own.

"No, I..." He jerked his hands away, but not before the worst of the scratches left a smear of blood on her palm.

"Hmm." She stared at the dark stain in the moonlight before slipping her own hand into the still water and then wiping it dry on her dress.

Henry watched her almost fearfully. A long silence passed between them, until he couldn't bear it any longer. "Look, it's called OCD. It makes me do irrational things. I can't control it, but it doesn't mean I'm crazy."

"Shhh." He found her fingers pressed to his lips to silence him. "You didn't have to tell me."

Her fingers fell away, and his eyes dropped to the strip of ground between them. "I..."

She moved her hands to a small bag at her side, and pulled out a roll of something. "Give me your hands."

"What?"

"I won't hurt you, Henry." Her blue eyes met his own, and he let her take his hands. Slowly, she wrapped the cuts in a white bandage before letting him retract them back into his lap.

Welpemon yawned at Alice's side, his ivory teeth shining in the dim light. One of his small hands balled up and rubbed his eye. "I'm tired."

She nodded and looked down at him. "We'll be watching you," she told Henry, not glancing up.

"You can come with us, you know. We could use your help."

She smiled again in the bluish moonlight. "Maybe."

Randy sat up across the camp, drawing Henry's attention. When he had looked back, both Alice and the small digimon were gone. He glanced around behind him, but saw no sign of them.

"Henry, you all right?" the older boy asked, standing up and coming over to wash his face.

"Uh," the dark haired boy got up and moved back over to his digimon. "Yeah. Just needed some water."

Randy nodded. "I just realized that we left no one to watch. Is it all right if I wake you up in a few hours to finish up the night?"

"Sure." Henry responded, laying down again as Randy took a seat across the camp on a boulder.

He rolled over and stared wide eyed at the rocks Alice had come over. Had it been real? But the bindings on his hands told him it had been. He fell asleep again, more confused than ever.

**neoKOS-MOS:** Okay, so there's Alice. Now, I'm sure you're all confused as to why he has OCD. I just always thought he was too controlled. Maybe there was a reason for that? I'm sure you don't remember, but I alluded to this in WWRT. I am not making fun of the disorder. I tried to keep him in character with it, and I hope I did a good job. My beta thought it was okay. Please just don't flame. –hiding-

_Dark Qiviut:_ I hope I'm sticking the dialogue here. Trying, but I may miss it sometimes. And, yes, the tension is definitely building. I think you see some more of that here.

_AprikotKisses:_ Well, it's getting there. As you see here, there's more problems in Henry's life than just him being separated from his sister. I'll se what I can do with Jun and her drugs, but that's not for a while, now that I've added other voices to the mix. –sigh- Oh, and for the typo, that just goes to prove that proofreading twice and having a beta doesn't always catch everything. Haha! We'll all be kinda sad when it ends, me included.

_thegreatwhitewolf:_ Don't know exactly what that means, but I get the picture. Keep up the good work to both of us.

_**Thanks for reviewing to all of you. Oh, and hi to Dark Dreamer 117, who signed to be alerted about this story. –big wave- You're not invisible any more!**_


	12. Return of the Beast King

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon. Ah, short disclaimers.

**neoKOS-MOS: **Hey, all. It took me a while, but I finally finished it. Like before, this isn't by Davis or Rika. This is Jeri's chapter, relating the experiences of the third group. And, don't worry, she's the same old Jeri we all know, except maybe a little braver.

Read and enjoy.

**Return of the Beast King**

Jeri and the others followed the curve of the cliff as they walked away from the night post. She was glad that the group she was with had so many Tamers in it, especially Takato, but she would still miss the safety she felt when all of them were together. In her arms, Katzemon was drowsing, his soft fur shimmering in the dusty wind. She sighed and looked over at her side, where Suzie was walking right next to her, clutching her rabbit digimon's hand.

"Are you okay, Suzie?" she whispered to the little girl.

She nodded and looked up to meet Jeri's eyes. "I'll be fine. I'm a big girl, and Lopmon will protect me."

The older girl nodded too, looking where she was going again. That was what she wished she could feel, a sense of safety in her digimon's capabilities. But she had spent so much time without him. She had seen Leomon killed before her very eyes, and now she felt so strongly that she was the one who had to protect him. He'd only been with her for two months, and she was not going to lose him again.

"Carry me, Matt." Up ahead, Mako was tugging at the older boy's pant leg. His little feet were already dragging tiredly behind him as he paced over the dusty dry ground.

"All right, but only till your rested," the blonde boy answered, bending down and picking Mako up to sit him on his shoulders. His black guitar case, stuffed with supplies instead of musical equipment, rested along his back as the young twin held on.

"Carry me, too." Ai suddenly cried, seeing her brother resting, and wanting the same. She tugged persistently on Matt's shirt hem.

"I'll carry you when Mako is rested," he responded, to no avail, as she kept asking him.

"Here, Ai." Nora stopped for a second to set down Rhyzomon, and then pulled out her digivice.

The floral lizard glowed with a faint green light before changing back into her ultimate form of Delphiniumon. The little girl's eyes lit up as she realized that she was going to ride on the theropod's back. Impmon, who had been walking impassively beside both of his partners a moment before, suddenly realized the same, and spoke up.

"Hey, I could carry you, Ai," the purple mini-devil said, catching her hand and her attention.

"It's okay, Impmon. Come on. We can both ride her together." Holding onto his hand, she pulled the digimon after her as she mounted Delphiniumon and settled herself at the curve of her neck. Impmon rested behind her as Ai made a face at her brother perched on Matt's shoulders.

Jeri smiled and ran a hand over Katzemon's head. There was a thump of someone running up behind her, and her hand was snatched up. The girl glanced over to see Takato beaming at her.

"Hi," she responded, the smile still gracing her features. "Where did you go?"

"Kazu found a cave over the side of the ledge, and he wanted a look inside."

A little horrified at the prospect of what could have happened to her friends, Jeri gripped his hand tighter. "You didn't let him, did you?"

The boy shook his head. "No, but he made Kenta have Marineangemon check it out. There was a huge bone inside."

Again, footsteps thumped up from behind, and Kazu appeared next to Takato. "Look, chumley. I got a piece of it." In his hand, he held a shard of bleached white bone. "Cool, huh?"

"Come on, Kazu! Give me my piece." Kenta grabbed the taller boy by the bookbag and started digging through the back pocket.

"Hey! Don't do that." The two of them fell into a fit of awkward wrestling over the concealed second shard of bone that they had take from the cave.

Jeri dropped Takato's hand and stepped up her pace, trying to put some distance between the fighting duo and herself. Suzie had moved a few yards away by now, and Jeri tried to close the gap a little. The gogglehead stayed at her side as she did so, Guilmon walking next to him and sniffing at the dusty ground.

"Are you okay, Jeri?" he asked, glancing over at her with worry in his eyes.

She smiled and hugged Katzemon tighter. "Yes. I'm just excited about what we're going to find on this journey."

"Hopefully some bread," the rust colored raptor at Takato's side whispered, sending up a cloud of dust as his words disturbed what had been resting on the earth.

The two of them giggled, and the boy affectionately slapped his digimon's side. "Don't worry, boy. We'll find some food soon enough."

Jeri's pace carried them up to walk beside Suzie once again. The little girl was singing quietly to herself, Lopmon humming the tune to accompany her partner. After a few moments, Guilmon added his voice to the mix, and Jeri found a smile spreading across her face.

"The monster tried to scare her, but she didn't seem to care. He wanted her to be sad, but she showed him how to care. They became friends, and since that day, the monster and the girl were never lonely as a pair."

Suzie's made up song came to an end and the little girl grinned at the two digimon for singing with her. Jeri slipped a hand out from around Katzemon and set it on her shoulder.

"That was pretty, Suzie. Do you sing a lot?"

Suzie's pigtails flopped as she nodded. "I sing at home. It makes everyone happier."

"I bet." Takato smiled down at her and slipped his hand back into Jeri's.

-

Up ahead, she could see the tall angular trees of a dark forest. It seemed to come abruptly out of the flat spiky plain they had been walking over for a few hours now. Though Takato had fallen back to be with the boys, Suzie still walked beside her, the little girl humming quietly to herself. She was getting tired now, and would no longer burst out into her creative little songs every once in a while. Jeri knew why Henry's sister was sticking at her side. Before they had left, she had promised the younger girl that she would be her friend. She had tried to promise to protect her, as Henry would have wanted her to, but Suzie hadn't allowed that, insisting that she was old enough to take care of herself. So, they were friends.

Jeri sighed and stopped for a moment, slipping her shoe off to pour dust out of the bottom. Suzie waited for her as she did the same for her other shoe.

"Do your feet hurt?" the little girl asked, eyes shining despite the tired look behind them.

The brunette nodded, walking once again. "I could use a rest. Hopefully Nora will let us stop at the edge of the forest for a while."

"There's a forest?" Suzie asked, standing up on her tiptoes to peer at the horizon ahead of them.

Jeri realized that the smaller girl hadn't been able to see it over the ridge of boulders up ahead. "Here," she said, setting Katzemon on the ground for a moment, and picking Suzie up. "Can you see it now? There's big black trees over there."

"It looks scary," was her quiet reply as she slipped out of Jeri's grip and back to the ground. "You'll be able to fight the bad monsters, right Lopmon?"

The brown rabbit smiled and nodded as the older girl picked her digimon up again. "Yeah. We'll show them for attacking us."

A pale shape streaked toward them from up ahead. Marineangemon beat his little wings to come to a stop, floating in front of the two girls. He squeaked and hummed a message to them before heading off behind them to collect the rest of the group.

"What did he say?" Jeri looked over at Lopmon, only to see the rabbit shrug.

"He said that we should hurry up, because Nora is waiting for us up ahead." Katzemon's too-deep voice said with a catlike yawn.

"Oh, you're awake." The older girl looked down to see her digimon's shining black eyes looking back at her, a smile in their shape.

"Yes. Thank you for letting me sleep. I feel stronger now," he whispered back as she quickened her pace to catch up with the others.

-

Nora, Matt, Ai, and Kenta were waiting for them at the edge of the forest. Still off in the dusty distance behind them, Mako, Kazu, and Takato were trying to close the gap. Jeri sunk down on a fallen tree trunk, sighing as her weight was taken off her feet. Suzie sat daintily next to her, watching Impmon as he fiddled with the toy gun that was strapped to his side.

Nora came over and collapsed next to Jeri as well, letting out a sigh. She stretched out her legs and brushed pale dust off her olive green combat boots. "How are you doing, Jeri?"

The brunette glanced over and found her gaze caught by Nora's kind hazel eyes.

"I'm okay," she whispered. "Do you think we'll be getting into some fighting in the forest?"

The green haired girl smiled. "Probably."

She glanced over momentarily at Delphiniumon. The green theropod stretched slightly, Ai still seated on her back, and looked over at her partner. "Suzie," she called. "Come here for a moment. I want to show you something."

As the younger girl walked over to the plant digimon, Nora turned back to Jeri, setting a reassuring hand on her knee. "I just want you to know that you'll be safe. But, you shouldn't be afraid to let him fight. He's stronger than you think."

Jeri sucked in a tiny breath, her eyes falling to the digimon in her lap. He peered back up at her with shining black eyes, nodding his approval of what Nora had said. "Oh," was all she could mutter as she hugged him tight again.

The three approaching boys broke into a run as they got closer to the tree line and finally collapsed in exhaustion in the scant shade. They all rested for ten minutes, letting their feet stop aching. Matt rested with his back against a tree, drinking from a bottle of water he had pulled from his guitar case. Gabumon had opted to carry the black bag, and currently had it slung over his shoulder so it rested on his thick fur. Ai had fallen asleep on Delphiniumon's back, Suzie sitting quietly behind her and letting the younger girl sleep. Mako slumped next to Impmon as the two leaned against Jeri's log. Takato and Kazu had sprawled out on the less dusty ground, eyes closed as the former thought and the latter dozed. Kenta sat on a rock with his head resting on his knees, so that no one could tell if he was sleeping or just resting.

Jeri looked off into the darkness of the forest before them. The trees were almost black, a sooty color that could have been natural, or could have been dusted over the bark. Their leaves were long and thin, almost spine-like, except broad and sharp on the edges. They too were a black color, a dull waxy sheen over their surfaces. The wind howled strangely through the odd leaves, a spooky sound that gave the girl the chills. She hugged her digimon closer and stood, walking to one of the trees and reaching out a hand to touch the surface. A smear of charcoal came away on her palm, but the bark remained the same black color.

She dusted her palm off and cast a glance back at the rest of the group. Only Nora was watching her, and the green haired girl motioned that it was okay for her to push farther into the woods.

Jeri turned and took a step into the forest, some sort of bravery overcoming her fear. It was cold. Maybe it was the feeling of being alone, but she felt a chill touch her skin. Hugging herself more firmly, the girl pushed deeper into the trees. It was silent. It hadn't struck her before, but now she realized that it was unnatural for a forest to be dead quiet. She swallowed the uneasy feeling in her stomach and again pushed forward. The trees were thin and it was easy to pass between them. A thick log had been thrown into the path ages ago, and she wondered where it had come from. The other trees were too thin compared to it.

Jeri stooped down and let Katzemon to the ground. The little cat poked his nose in the dark leaf little that carpeted the ground. "This is a new forest," he whispered in the silence.

"How do you know?"

"The ground smells of soot," he replied. "It has been burned down recently, and this grew up to take it's place."

"So true." A voice rang out from overhead.

Jeri jerked away from the tree she had been standing next to and looked up. Perched in the sooty branches was a very strange digimon. His body was long and horribly thin. Each of his four legs ended in a hoof like point, from which sprouted three sickle shaped claws. His lizard-like body was a deep crimson red, with two leathery midnight black wings topping his shoulders. His long neck ended in a cruel head, two angular horns jutted from the back of it and his beak shaped face lifted thin lips to reveal a sickly large smile.

Before Jeri could call out, the digimon had her pinned to the tree opposite of his prior hiding place. He clamped his tiny paw over her mouth and held her firm with his horrible claws.

The girl squeezed her eyes shut and tried to scream. But almost as suddenly as she had been pinned, she found herself free again. She gasped slightly as she saw another digimon holding the first at bay. He stood on his two feline feet and held a small sword to the red digimon's throat. His fur was a familiar color, and ripped pants covered him from the waist down.

"Leomon?" The girl stared at the maneless lion before her.

He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at her. "DemiLeomon."

The girl nodded, realizing that his rookie form was only as tall as she was.

A gargling sound escaped the digimon in his grasp. "Let go of me. I'm only relaying a message."

"It seems like an odd way to approach such a task, assaulting my partner."

"Phase Transition," the thin creature called, his body instantly going translucent and slipping intangibly out of the lion's grasp.

DemiLeomon grunted and moved to place himself between Jeri and his opponent as the digimon shifted out of his ethereal state onto a tree branch. He shook himself and then set the two partners in his sights.

"Just know, that Master Zeismon is watching you. Don't think that just because you don't have the seer, that we will leave you alone." He grinned a horrible toothy grin, and then leapt up through the canopy.

Jeri relaxed and dropped to a sitting position on the log that lay in her path. DemiLeomon looked down at her as he sheathed his sword.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. "Yes. He didn't really hurt me. I was just scared."

A feline hand was set on her shoulder, and she looked up into his golden eyes. "I'm glad."

"Who was that, anyway?" Jeri glanced up to the hole in the leaves where their opponent had disappeared.

There was a rustling in the trees behind them, and the brunette turned to see Nora emerging.

"What happened?" the green haired girl asked, eyeing the rookie digimon standing next to Jeri.

The lion helped his partner to her feet and then explained it to Nora. "We were attacked by a digimon. He said he had a message for us."

"He said that Zeismon is watching us, and he'll be attacking us, even though Rika's not with us." Jeri said quietly.

"Hmm." Nora looked around and then shrugged. "It must have been Messengermon. It's interesting that Mesa's joined that side."

"Is he dangerous?" DemiLeomon asked, hand again reaching for his sword.

The green clad girl laughed. "Well, I suppose he could be, but he's more interested in scaring you than killing you. Come on." She waved a hand and then headed back through the trees to where the others were waiting.

"Nora," Delphiniumon turned her head to see her partner. "I can feel water off that way. There may be a stream we can follow through the woods."

"Cool. Lead the way."

The theropod walked off, hugging the edge of the forest and staying in the shade. The others followed behind her, and Jeri dropped to the rear, where Takato was walking with Guilmon. The boy noticed the rookie digimon beside the brunette and looked over at them.

"What happened, Jeri?"

She blinked, hesitating before her digimon took over. "I had enough energy, so I thought I'd carry myself."

The boy nodded and sighed, closing his eyes. "I wish someone would carry me. I didn't sleep very good the night before, and all this walking is too much."

Jeri smiled. "We'll get some rest tonight, Takato."

-

All that walking had taken them to the river. It was wide but slow flowing, and Jeri could see small fish digimon swimming down its length. They walked along the bank in relative silence, all of them watching the surrounding forest in suspicion. The brunette was glad to have DemiLeomon walking next to her. Now that he was no longer so small, she didn't feel as if she had to protect him.

The silence was still unnerving. Suzie had started singing again a while ago, but even that had tapered off in the tenseness of the air. The little girl now sat on Delphiniumon's back, both her and Ai watching the tree line.

Jeri sighed, falling back toward the end of the line. For some reason, she wanted to be alone with her digimon. Not to talk to him, but just to be with him. She watched, almost unconcerned, as the others disappeared around a bend in the river. Just as she had fallen into a sense of safety, a light green vine shot out of the dark forest and wrapped around her waist. The girl screamed as her partner leapt into action.

The Blossomon stepped out of the trees and grinned evilly at his prisoner. DemiLeomon drew his sword and hacked at the vine, but was thrown aside by another coil of vegetation. Jeri felt the air being crushed out of her lungs as the vine wrapped around her tightened its hold. Her digimon pulled himself out of the underbrush and charged the plant digimon again. He dodged as a flower spat out a sharp line of bullet-like seeds, raising his sword to deflect a few of them wide. With another leap of his powerful legs, the lion launched himself over a boiling obstacle of intertwined vines and plunged his sword into the Blossomon's fibrous side.

Jeri felt the bellow through the vine wrapped around her, but the grip didn't lessen. Her vision was blackening around the edges, and she knew that if she didn't get some air soon, she would pass out. The girl struggled, biting down on the green coil. The smell and taste of tomato vines filled her senses.

DemiLeomon sliced through one of the smaller flower stems, sending the violet thing tumbling to the leafy ground. Blossomon reacted, slamming a thorned vine against the lion clinging to it's shoulder.

_No!_ Jeri yelled. Where were the others? Why was this happening to her?

With a scream of yellow light, her vision narrowed. And then, suddenly, the vine loosened and she fell to the ground with a painful thump. Face still to the ground, she gasped in the chilly, smoke scented air.

"Jeri, move!" The order made her jump, and the girl dragged herself away through the leaf litter.

In the slight safety of the shadow of a tree trunk, the brunette looked back to see what was going on. Her digimon, Leomon, not his rookie form, swung his white sword and cut smoothly through a flurry of vines. The Blossomon howled in pain again, green data leaking into the air from the severed appendages. With a growl, Leomon raised his fist, burnt orange energy already emanating from it, and slammed it into the plant digimon.

"Fist of the Beast King!"

The weed burst into a cloud of pale green data, the echo of its final scream still ringing through the clearing. The lion breathed deep, watching the data float away on the wind before turning to his partner's aid.

"Are you all right?" He asked, helping her up with one muscular arm.

The girl nodded, looking up at his powerful face as tears blurred her vision. She threw herself at him. "Oh, Leomon. It's so good to see you again."

-

Jeri and Leomon met up with the group again after a few moments of a brisk run. Oddly, the brunette saw Nora walking casually in the rear of the line, her hands stuffed into her pockets. As the younger girl stepped up next to her, she felt those hazel eyes cast to the lion behind them.

"What happened?"

"Um, nothing." Jeri returned. "There was a Blossomon that attacked us, but Leomon took care of it."

Nora smiled. "So, is he stronger than you remember?"

The other girl looked down, thinking for a moment. "Yes. And you were right. I don't have to protect him."

The green clad girl nodded. "Good."

-

As night fell, the darkness of the forest peaked. The black leaves overhead seemed to absorb any light that might have been. Nora called camp early, having them use the last of daylight to gather firewood. Impmon lit them a nice fire, and then they spread out on the ground for some rest. Jeri found herself watching her digimon even as he was drifting off to sleep, resting against a tree. Delphiniumon stood in the middle of the campground, her foot roots dug snugly into the ground to serve as a watch. As Jeri too felt her exhaustion tugging at her eyelids, she smiled in the safety of the group and relaxed into sleep.

**neoKOS-MOS:** So, Leomon's back and everything is good. I hope Jeri was okay. I don't really remember her that well.

_Dark Qiviut:_ I'm glad Henry was still himself. That was really the only thing I was worried about. Oh, and if there's any more constructive criticism, go ahead. I need it.

_ApricotKisses:_ Oh my. You've been yelling a lot in your reviews. –laughing- I'm glad his little quirk got you so excited. And I'm glad you thought it fit his character too. I just didn't want anyone to think I was doing it for kicks. I'm glad it was realistic. It really is a sad thing to have, so I'm glad it didn't come off wrong.

I knew his eyes were gray! I had originally written them in as gray, but then I looked it up online, and it said green. Darn false information. I think I'll fix it later.

_thegreatwhitewolf:_ Hey bud. Glad you liked it. And hopefully I didn't ruin this chapter for you with all my ranting about it.

_**Haylo to the 22 other people who have been hitting this story. –big wave- Reviews are cherished, as always.**_


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